Sampling Techniques

HADIYA HABIB
Research Scholar
Hadiya.scholar@kashmiruniversity.net
 Outline
• The Nature of Sampling
• Probability Sampling Design
• Non-Probability Sampling Design
• Determination of Sample Size
 Nature of Sampling
• Method or the technique consisting of
selection for the study of the so called part or
the portion or the sample, with a view to draw
conclusions or the solutions about the
universe or the population.
• A Sample is a smaller (but hopefully
representative) collection of units from a
population used to determine the truths
about the population (Field, 2005).
Sampling
STUDY POPULATION

SAMPLE

TARGET POPULATION
 Population
• Population from which the sample is drawn may
not be the same. Often there is large but not
complete overlap between these two groups due
to frame issues etc .
• Sometimes they may be entirely separate - for
instance, we might study rats in order to get a
better understanding of human health, or we
might study records from people born in 2008 in
order to make predictions about people born in
2009. 5
 Basic Principles
• Law of Statistical Regularity – “moderately large
number of the items chosen at random from the
large group are almost sure on the average to
possess the features of the large group.”

• Law of Inertia of Large Numbers – the larger the

size of the sample; the more accurate the results are
likely to be.
 Advantages
1. Very accurate.
2. Economical in nature.
3. Very reliable.
4. High suitability ratio towards the different
surveys.
5. Takes less time.
6. In cases, when the universe is very large, then
the sampling method is the only practical
method for collecting the data.
 Disadvantages
• 1. Inadequacy of the samples.
2. Chances for bias.
3. Problems of accuracy.
4. Difficulty of getting the representative
sample.
5. Untrained manpower.
6. Absence of the informants.
7. Chances of committing the errors in
sampling.
 Important Issues
• Representation: The extent to which the
sample is representative of the population
• Generalization:The extent to which the
results of the study can be reasonably
extended from the sample to the population
• Sampling error: The chance occurrence that a
randomly selected sample is not
representative of the population due to errors
inherent in the sampling technique
 Types of Samples
• Probability (Random) Samples
• Simple random sample
– Systematic random sample
– Stratified random sample
– Multistage sample
– Cluster sample
• Non-Probability Samples
– Convenience sample
– Purposive sample
– Quota

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 PROBABILITY SAMPLING
• A probability sampling scheme is one in which every unit in
the population has a chance (greater than zero) of being
selected in the sample, and this probability can be accurately
determined.
• Only way of unbiased estimation
• Precision of the survey indicators by calculating the sampling
errors
• When every element in the population does have the same
probability of selection, this is known as an 'equal probability
of selection' (EPS) design. Such designs are also referred to as
'self-weighting' because all sampled units are given the same
weight.
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 PROBABILITY SAMPLING
• Probability sampling includes:
Simple Random Sampling,
Systematic Sampling,
Stratified Random Sampling,
Cluster Sampling
Multistage Sampling.

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 Random Sampling
1. Random sampling
Selecting subjects so that all members of a population have an equal and
independent chance of being selected
 Advantages
1. Easy to conduct
2. High probability of achieving a representative sample
3. Meets assumptions of many statistical procedures
 Disadvantages
1. Identification of all members of the population can be difficult
2. Contacting all members of the sample can be difficult
 Selecting Random Samples
• Random sampling (continued)
– Selection process
• Identify and define the population
• Determine the desired sample size
• List all members of the population
• Assign all members on the list a consecutive number
• Select an arbitrary starting point from a table of random
numbers and read the appropriate number of digits
Systematic Random Sampling
– Selecting every Kth subject from a list of the
members of the population
– Advantage
• Very easily done
– Disadvantages
• subgroups
• Some members of the population don’t have
an equal chance of being included
Systematic Random Sampling
– Selection process
• Identify and define the population
• Determine the desired sample size
• Obtain a list of the population
• Determine what K is equal to by dividing the
size of the population by the desired sample
size
• Start at some random place in the
population list
• Take every Kth individual on the list
Stratified Random Sampling
The population is divided into two or more
groups called strata, according to some criterion,
such as geographic location, grade level, age, or
income, and subsamples are randomly selected
from each strata.
Stratified random sampling (continued)
– Advantages
• More accurate sample
• Can be used for both proportional and non-proportional
samples
• Representation of subgroups in the sample
– Disadvantages
• Identification of all members of the population can be
difficult
• Identifying members of all subgroups can be difficult
Stratified random sampling (continued)
– Selection process
• Identify and define the population
• Determine the desired sample size
• Identify the variable and subgroups (i.e., strata) for
which you want to guarantee appropriate
representation
• Classify all members of the population as members
of one of the identified subgroups
Stratified random sampling
 Cluster Sampling
• The process of randomly selecting intact groups, not
individuals, within the defined population sharing similar
characteristics
• Clusters are locations within which an intact group of
members of the population can be found
• Examples
– Neighborhoods
– School districts
– Schools
– Classrooms
 Cluster sampling (continued)

– Advantages
• Very useful when populations are large and spread over
a large geographic region
• Convenient and expedient
• Do not need the names of everyone in the population
– Disadvantages
• Representation is likely to become an issue
Cluster sampling (continued)
– Selection process
• Identify and define the population
• Determine the desired sample size
• Identify and define a logical cluster
• List all clusters that make up the population of clusters
• Estimate the average number of population members per
cluster
• Determine the number of clusters needed by dividing the
sample size by the estimated size of a cluster
• Randomly select the needed numbers of clusters
• Include in the study all individuals in each selected cluster
Cluster sampling
 CLUSTER SAMPLING

• Cluster sampling is an example of 'two-stage sampling' .

• First stage a sample of areas is chosen;

• Second stage a sample of respondents within those

areas is selected.

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 MULTISTAGE SAMPLING
• Complex form of cluster sampling in which two or more
levels of units are embedded one in the other.

• First stage, random number of districts chosen in all

states.

• Followed by random number of talukas, villages.

• Then third stage units will be houses.

• All ultimate units (houses, for instance) selected at last

step are surveyed.
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 Probability Proportional to Size (PPS) Sampling
• In probability-proportional-to-size ('PPS') sampling, the
selection probability for each element is set to be
proportional to its size measure, up to a maximum of 1.
• However, this has the drawbacks of variable sample
size, and different portions of the population may still
be over- or under-represented due to chance variation
in selections.
• To address this problem, PPS may be combined with a
systematic approach.

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 Non Probability sampling
1. Convenience sampling
2. Purposive Sampling
3. Quota Sampling
 Convenience sampling

 the process of including whoever happens to

be available at the time
 Also called “accidental” or “haphazard”
sampling
 Purposive sampling
 The process whereby the researcher
selects a sample based on experience
or knowledge of the group to be
sampled
 Also called “judgment” sampling
 Quota sampling
• The process whereby a researcher gathers
data from individuals possessing identified
characteristics and quotas
• The population is first segmented into
mutually exclusive sub-groups, just as in
stratified sampling.
• Then judgment used to select subjects or
units from each segment based on a specified
proportion.
 Snowball Sampling

It is when you don't know the best people to

study because of the unfamiliarity of the topic
or the complexity of events. So you ask
participants during interviews to suggest other
individuals to be sampled.
 REPLACEMENT OF SELECTED UNITS

• Sampling schemes may be without replacement

('WOR' - no element can be selected more than
once in the same sample) or with replacement
('WR' - an element may appear multiple times in
the one sample). Ex- Fish.

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 Sampling Error
• Sampling errors are the representative errors
due to selecting a sample of eligible units from
the target population instead of including
every eligible unit in the survey.
• Sampling errors are related to the sample size
and the variability among the sampling units.
• Sampling errors can be statistically evaluated
after the survey.
 Non-Sampling Errors
• Non-sampling errors result from problems during data
collection and data processing, such as failure to locate
and interview the correct household,
misunderstanding of the questions on the part of
either the interviewer or the respondent, and data
entry errors.
• These are usually the most important sources of error
and are expensive to control and difficult to evaluate
and measure quantitatively.
• The sampling design should be as simple and
straightforward as possible.
• A two-stage household-based sample design is
relatively easy to implement and that quality can be
 Household Listing and Pre-selection of
Households
• Households be pre-selected in the central office prior to
the start of fieldwork rather than by teams in the field
who may have pressures to bias the selection.
• The interviewers are asked to interview only the pre-
selected households.
• In order to prevent bias, no changes or replacements are
allowed in the field.
• To perform pre-selection of households, a complete list of
all residential households in each of the selected sample
clusters is necessary.
• This list is usually prepared during a household listing
process conducted before the mainsurvey.
 Exactness of Survey Implementation
• No matter how carefully a survey is designed and
how complete the materials for conducting
sampling activities are, if the implementation of
the sampling activities by sampling staff (office
staff responsible for selecting sample units, field
workers responsible for the mapping and
household listing and interviewers responsible for
data collection) is not preformed exactly as
designed, serious bias and misleading results may
occur.
 Survey Domains
• Design domain – Rural, Urban
• Analysis domain – Educated youth working
• Larger the domain, larger the sample size for
getting precision
 Sample Size Determination
• How large should your sample be?
• Should you survey 1%, 5%, 10% of the population?
• It depends on budget, time, data quality and survey
precision
• In other words, how closely you want your results to
match those of the entire population.
• There are two measures that affect the accurateness of
the data:
Margin of Error (or Confidence Intervals)
Confidence Level
 Sample Size Determination
• First of all there is the margin of error (or confidence
intervals). In short, this is the positive and negative
deviation you allow on your survey results for the sample.
• In other words, the deviation between the opinions of your
respondents and the opinion of the entire population.
• Example - Suppose you set your margin of error on 5%. If –
let’s hope so! – 90% of your survey respondents like
the ‘new policy of government’ , a 5% margin of error
means that you can be ‘sure’ that between 85% (90%-5)
and 95% (90%+5) of the entire population actually likes
the ‘new policy of government’.
 Sample Size Determination
• Confidence level - It tells you how often the percentage of
the population that likes the‘new policy of
government’ actually lies within the boundaries of the
margin of error. Or, following on our previous example, it
tells you how sure you can be that between 85% and 95%
of the population likes the ‘new policy of government’ .

• Suppose you chose the 95% confidence level – which is

pretty much the standard in quantitative research1 – then
in 95% of the time between 85% and 95% of the
population likes the ‘new policy of government’.
 Sample Size Calculation
• Okay, now that we have these values defined, we can calculate our
needed sample size.
• Your confidence level corresponds to a Z-score. This is a constant
value needed for this equation. Here are the z-scores for the most
common confidence levels:
90% – Z Score = 1.645
95% – Z Score = 1.96
99% – Z Score = 2.576
• If you choose a different confidence level, use Z-score table* to
find your score.
• Next, plug in your Z-score, Standard Deviation, and confidence
interval into this equation:**
Necessary Sample Size = (Z-score)² * StdDev*(1-
StdDev) / (margin of error)²
 Sample Size Calculation
• Here is how the math works assuming you
chose a 95% confidence level, .5 standard
deviation, and a margin of error (confidence
interval) of +/- 5%.
• ((1.96)² x .5(.5)) / (.05)²
(3.8416 x .25) / .0025
.9604 / .0025
384.16
385 respondents are needed
 Sample Weight
• A sampling weight is an inflation factor which
extrapolates the sample to the target
population.
Thank you!