Research methods module 6

MBB1

Population

is the entire set of individuals of interest to a researcher

sample

is the set of individuals selected from a population and usually is intended to represent the population in a research study

Representative sample

to generalize the results of a study to a population

biased sample

is a sample with different characteristics from those of the population

selection bias or sampling bias

occurs when participants or subjects are selected in a manner that increases the probability of obtaining a biased sample

sampling

is the process of selecting individuals to participate in a research study

probability sampling

the entire population is known each individual in the population has a specifiable probability of selection and sampling occurs by a random process based on the probabilities

Random process

is a procedure that produces one outcome from a set of possible outcomes

nonprobability sampling

the population is not completely known individual probabilities cannot be known and the sampling method is based on factors such as commonsense or ease with an effort to maintain representativeness and avoid bias

systematic sampling

is a type of probability sampling that is very similar to simple random sampling

stratified random sampling

technique for accomplishing this goal is to use

proportionate stratified random sampling

a sample is obtained such that the proportions in the sample exactly match the population

cluster sampling

can be used whenever well-defined clusters exist within the population of interest

Quota sampling

can ensure that subgroups are equally represented in a connivence sample