Sampling

Sampling

Research takes samples from a target population. It’s really important that the sample is representative of the population. If the sample is biased in any way, it’s hard to generalise to the whole population. There are many different ways to select a sample:

1.       Random sample – Everyone in the target group has an equal chance of being selected. Although this is fair and will probably provide a good variety of people, it doesn’t guarantee that the sample will be representative – some subgroups could be missed.

2.       Systematic sample – Taking every nth name from a sampling frame (a record of all the…