Sampling

Population

• A large group of individuals the researcher is intrested in studying for an experiment or observation; behaviour maybe a topic that the reseacher is intrested in studying.

Sample

• A small group of people the researcher is intrested in studying, sampling may occur when population is not possible because of the size. the results of sampling maybe generalised or replicated.

Generalisation

• Generalisation is discovering how obtainable the results are to other groups across the globe for example if an experiment is replicated in western countries it would fail to represent a large portion of the world.

Bias

• Samples maybe biased in that certain groups are over or under represented.

Most Avialable

• This method of sampling involves attempting to find the most easily obtainable artists.

How

• To find the most available ask students in your class or random people you see in town.

Advantages

• This method is extremely quick and efficent as they make use of the people who are already near you, because of this the mthod is adopted largely by researchers world wide.

Disadvantages

• Inevitably biased, the sample you pick e.g. maybe your class mates which could mean they understand what the  experiment is about and will probably produce demand characteristics as a result.

Self-selecting

• Participants volunteer themselves to participate they are entised by rewards i.e. money or happy to just be there.

How?

• Advertise, posters in bus stops or a notice board

Advantages

• Participants are willing meaning they will more likely engage with the experiment

Disadvantages

• A bigger risk of demand characteristics.

Equal chance

• Every person in the target population has an equal chance of being selected.

How?

• People in the target population are given a number then if the number is drawn from a hat then they will be in the experiment.

Advantages

• Reduces the researchers input meaning that the research is less likely to be biased.

Disadvantages

• Still possible that a random sample produces a biased sample.

Sampling Frame

• Participants are selected by a set 'pattern'

How?

• every third person is selected from a list of the target population.

Advantages

• A almost random allocation meaning that there is less chance of researcher bias.

Disadvantages

• Time and effort a complete list of the population is required.

Frequency

• Participants are selected according to their frequency in the target population

How?

• Frequencies could be anything like gender or age

Advantages

• The characteristics of the target population are represented, this means the generalisability is increased more than other methods.

Disadvantages

• This method fails to represent how people differ from each other.