Research Methods: Sampling

Research Methods: Sampling

Key Concepts

• Target Population - refers to all the people a researcher wishes to make a statement about.
• To have a representative sample from the target population - a group who represent the target population in terms of characteristics such as age, IQ, social class, relevant experiences etc.
• Having a representative sample gives the ability to generalise from the sample to the rest of the target population which increases population validity.
• A sample that's not representative is biased and will have low population validity.

Random Sampling

• Everyone in target population has an equal chance of being selected.
• Every member of target population identified
• A random sampling technique used to select sample (e.g manual selection: every name put onto separate pieces of paper and placed in…