Activity 6.

1:

Identifying Types of Sampling

For each of the situations described below, identify the type of sampling that is being
used.

a. Simple random sampling

b. Stratified random sampling
c. Cluster sampling
d. Two-stage random sampling
e. Convenience sampling
f. Purposive sampling
g. No sampling -- entire population is being studied

1. ______ A researcher surveying options about a university president first determines

the proportion of the total faculty in each college in the university. She then
randomly selects the same proportions for her sample.

2. ______ A researcher is interested in interviewing all the members of the New York
City police force who do not live in the city. He gets a roster of the names of all
officers on the force, randomly selects five police stations, and then conducts
interviews of all officers in those stations.

3. ______ A researcher is interested interviewing alumni of San Simeon College who

graduated between the years 1990 and 1996. He gets the roster of the names of these
individuals from the alumni office, and mails a questionnaire to everyone on this
roster.

4. ______ Another researcher is also interested in interviewing alumni of San Simeon

College who graduated between the years 1990 and 1996. He gets the roster of the
names of these individuals from the alumni office, selects the names of 100
individuals who graduated during these years using a table of random numbers, and
then mails a questionnaire to everyone selected.

5. ______ A researcher is interested in identifying the attitudes of the physicians who

work for Keyser Hospital toward the Republican plan for health care. She obtains a
list of all the Keyser Medical Centers in southern California and randomly selects
ten of these centers. Then she obtains a list of all the physicians at these centers and
randomly selects eight physicians from each center to interview.

6. ______ A graduate student enrolled in the Marriage and Family Counseling Program
at Daytona University is interested in determining how other graduate students feel
 about the program. He interviews all of the students he has access to on a given
Monday night when he takes one of his counseling courses.

7. ______ A student enrolled in the Hotel and Restaurant Management School at

Colorado State is researching the best restaurants in Denver based on the opinions of
food critics. She begins by asking her advisor, who refers the student to four food
critics who have written extensively on the subject and whom the student then
contacts to interview for her study.

8. ______Fifty black marbles are selected (using a volunteer) from a large jar in which
there are 250 marbles, evenly divided between black and white in color.

9. ______A high school teacher interviews all of the students who are members of the
school glee club.

10. _______A researcher interviews all the students who are assigned to after-school
detention the day before a championship football game.
Activity 6.2:
Drawing a Random Sample

In this exercise, you will use a Table of Random Numbers to draw a random sample, and
how the size of a sample affects its representativeness. Use the hypothetical population of
99 students (Table 6.2). Use the Table of Random Numbers located in the back of the
textbook to select a sample of 10 students from the hypothetical population. List their
numbers in the first column of the chart below, and then fill in the related information
from Table 6.2 for each of the students you have selected.

Student Number Gender School IQ

Now, compute the proportion for Gender and School (divide your totals by 10 to obtain a
decimal), and the average IQ (divide by 10 to obtain a whole number) for your sample,
and enter these into the appropriate boxes below.

Averages Gender School

Sample (n = 10) M F A B C IQ
Average =

Find three other groups or students in the class, obtain the averages they got from their
samples on the three characteristics, and write them in the boxes below.

Averages from 3 Gender School

other groups M F A B C IQ
Group #1
Group #2
Group #3

Now average the four samples (yours plus the three others), and write the averages in the
boxes below.
Averages for Gender School
Sample (n = 40) M F A B C IQ
Average =
Population

How do the data for the sample of size 10 differ from the data for the sample of size 40?
How would you explain this? What conclusion can you draw from this exercise?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
 Table 6.2 for Activity 6.2
A Hypothetical Population of 99 Students
Student Student
Number Sex School IQ Number Sex School IQ
01 F Adams 134 51 M Beals 110
02 F Adams 133 52 M Beals 110
03 F Adams 130 53 M Beals 109
04 F Adams 127 54 M Beals 108
05 F Adams 123 55 M Beals 107
06 M Adams 123 56 M Beals 106
07 M Adams 121 57 M Beals 101
08 M Adams 120 58 M Beals 101
09 F Adams 119 59 M Beals 98
10 M Adams 118 60 M Beals 97
11 F Adams 117 61 F Beals 91
12 F Adams 117 62 F Beals 86
13 M Adams 115 63 F Beals 83
14 M Adams 111 64 F Cortez 137
15 M Adams 109 65 M Cortez 136
16 M Adams 108 66 F Cortez 133
17 M Adams 108 67 F Cortez 130
18 F Adams 106 68 F Cortez 128
19 F Adams 105 69 F Cortez 125
20 F Adams 104 70 F Cortez 125
21 F Adams 103 71 M Cortez 122
22 F Adams 101 72 F Cortez 121
23 F Adams 101 73 M Cortez 118
24 M Adams 101 74 F Cortez 118
25 M Adams 100 75 M Cortez 113
26 M Adams 98 76 F Cortez 113
27 M Adams 97 77 M Cortez 111
28 M Adams 97 78 F Cortez 111
29 M Adams 96 79 F Cortez 107
30 F Adams 95 80 F Cortez 106
31 F Adams 89 81 F Cortez 106
32 F Adams 88 82 F Cortez 105
33 F Adams 85 83 F Cortez 104
34 F Beals 133 84 F Cortez 103
35 F Beals 129 85 F Cortez 102
36 F Beals 129 86 M Cortez 102
37 F Beals 128 87 M Cortez 100
38 F Beals 127 88 M Cortez 100
39 F Beals 127 89 M Cortez 99
40 F Beals 126 90 M Cortez 99
41 M Beals 125 91 M Cortez 99
42 M Beals 124 92 F Cortez 98
43 M Beals 117 93 M Cortez 97
44 M Beals 116 94 F Cortez 96
45 M Beals 115 95 F Cortez 95
46 M Beals 114 96 F Cortez 93
47 M Beals 114 97 F Cortez 85
48 M Beals 113 98 M Cortez 83
49 M Beals 111 99 M Cortez 83
50 M Beals 111
Parameters: Average IQ = 109.8; Proportions: sex: M = .49, F = .51; schools: A = .33, B = .31, C = .36
Activity 6.3:
When Is It Appropriate to Generalize?

1. On a television talk show, a psychiatrist discussed his study of airplane hijackers at

some length and pointed out that their outstanding characteristic (which he discovered
through extensive psychiatric interviewing) was a consistent history of failure. His
sample consisted of approximately 20 hijackers who were interviewed while in jail.
Although not explicitly stated, it seems obvious that the population to whom he
intended to generalize was “all hijackers.” Would it be appropriate to generalize to
this population?

Yes ______ No ______ If not, why not?

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

2. Assume that you wish to study the hypothesis that among career women between the
ages of 30 and 50, career satisfaction is related to the adequacy of their relationship
with their father during adolescence. Work with a partner to answer each of the
following questions.

a. What target population would you want to generalize? ______________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

b. What population would be sufficiently accessible? ___________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

c. How might you get a random sample from the accessible population? ____________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

d. If you had to use a convenience sample -- for example, in just one or two locations, --
what descriptive information should you try to obtain?

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________
Activity 6.4:
True or False?

Write “T” in front of the statements below that are true; write “F” in front of those that
are false.

1. ______ A “population,” as used in research, refers to the group to whom

the researcher wishes to generalize the results of a study.

2. ______ Systematic sampling would be an example of a random sampling

method.

3. ______ A purposive sample is a sample selected because the individuals

have special characteristics or qualities of some sort.

4. ______ A representative sample is one that is similar to its population in

all characteristics.

5. ______ The target population is usually larger than the accessible

population.

6. ______ A simple random sample is usually a convenience sample.

7. ______ When a study is replicated, it is not always repeated under the

same conditions.

8. ______ The term “ecological generalizability” refers to the extent to

which the results of a study can be generalized to conditions or settings
different from those that existed in a particular study.

9. ______ The term “external validity,” as used in research, refers to whether

the sample has been randomly selected or not.

10. ______ Convenience samples can be randomly selected.

Activity 6.5:
Stratified Sampling

In this activity, you will use a table of random numbers to select a stratified random
sample.

A hypothetical school district includes a total of 35 administrators. Their last names

are shown in the table below. Their school level is indicated by the letters E (elementary)
and S (secondary). You are authorized to send eight of the District’s administrators to a
professional conference. Use a table of random numbers to choose a stratified random
sample to determine who gets to go. You want the sample to be as representative as
possible of the administrators in the district.

Gordon Mary Louise Don Susan

Abel - Smith - Chan - Green - Thomas –
E S E E E
Danny Faye Tony Tom Ed
Gordon - Taam - Gomez - Vilueva - Peregrino –
E E S S E
Phyllis Joan Ed Peter James
Guta - Miller - Lopez - Potter - Turk –
E S E E E
Joan Dottie Bernie Ruth Mike
Nunez - Arnot - Beber - Cho - Fujimoto –
E E S E E
Paul Susan Betty Sue Stan
Lichter - Focht - Davis - Kowoski - Leung –
E E E E E
Alice Jane Rob Annie Jesus
Astor - Dunlap - Roberts - Lai - Contras –
S E E E E
Barbara Bob Tyrone Sally Dick
Derek - Wagus - Power - Bender - Cross –
E E S S S

a. What are the strata you will use?

b. Write down the names of the eight individuals you have selected.

c. Explain how you selected the eight.

d. How representative is your sample? Explain why it is or is not.

Would there be a better way to determine who should attend this meeting? If not, explain
why this is the best method to use. If so, describe how you would select a better, more
representative sample.
Activity 6.6:
Designing a Sampling Plan

In this activity, you will work with a partner to develop a sampling plan.
Suppose that you would like to select a sample of 50 students at your school to
learn something about how many hours per week, on average, students in your program
spend engaged in studying.

a. Discuss with your partner whether you think it would be easy or difficult to
obtain a simple random sample of students and to obtain the desired
information from all students selected for the sample. Summarize your
discussion by writing a few sentences (to read to the class) explaining why
you think it would be easy or difficult.

b. With your partner, decide how you might go about selecting a sample of 50
students from your school that, although it truly may not be a simple random
sample, could be reasonably considered representative of the population of
interest. Write a brief description of your sampling plan, and be sure to point
out the aspects of the plan that you think make it reasonable to argue that it
will be representative.

c. Explain your plan to another pair of students in the class. Ask them to critique
the plan, pointing out any potential flaws they see in it. Write a brief summary
of the comments you received. Now reverse roles and provide a critique of
their sampling plan.

d. Based on the feedback you just received, would you modify your original
sampling plan? If not, explain why this is not necessary. If so, describe how
the plan would be modified.
Problem Sheet 6: Sampling Plan

1. My intended sample (participants in my study) consists of (state who and how

many): _____________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

2. Key demographics (characteristics of the sample) are as follows (e.g., age range,
sex, distribution, ethnic breakdown, socioeconomic status, location [where are these
subjects located?], etc.): _______________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

3. State what type of sample you plan to use (i.e., convenience, purposive, simple
random, stratified random, cluster, systematic).
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

4. I will gain access to and/or get contact information for my sample thrugh the
following steps: ______________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

5. What, if any, are the inclusion/exclusion criteria for participation in your study:
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

6. External validity:

a. To whom do you think you can generalize the results of your study: Explain.
________________________________________________________________

b. If applicable, to what settings/conditions could you generalize the results of

your study (ecological validity)?
________________________________________________________________

c. If results are not generalizable, why not?

________________________________________________________________