Explain each sampling techniches.
1. Convenience sampling: Convenience sampling is perhaps the easiest method of sampling, because participants are selected based on availability and willingness to take part. Useful results can be obtained, but the results are prone to significant bias, because those who volunteer to take part may be different from those who choose not to (volunteer bias), and the sample may not be representative of other characteristics, such as age or sex. Note: volunteer bias is a risk of all non-probability sampling methods.
2. Judgement (or Purposive) Sampling: Also known as selective, or subjective, sampling, this technique relies on the judgement of the researcher when choosing who to ask to participate. Researchers may implicitly thus choose a “representative” sample to suit their needs, or specifically approach individuals with certain characteristics. This approach is often used by the media when canvassing the public for opinions and in qualitative research.
3. Simple random sampling
In this case each individual is chosen entirely by chance and each member of the population has an equal chance, or probability, of being selected. One way of obtaining a random sample is to give each individual in a population a number, and then use a table of random numbers to decide which individuals to include.1 For example, if you have a sampling frame of 1000 individuals, labelled 0 to 999, use groups of three digits from the random number table to pick your sample. So, if the first three numbers from the random number table were 094, select the individual labelled “94”, and so on.
4. Clustered sampling: In a clustered sample, subgroups of the population are used as the sampling unit, rather than individuals. The population is divided into subgroups, known as clusters, which are randomly selected to be included in the study. Clusters are usually already defined, for example individual GP practices or towns could be identified as clusters. In single-stage cluster sampling, all members of the chosen clusters are then included in the study. In two-stage cluster sampling, a selection of individuals from each cluster is then randomly selected for inclusion. Clustering should be taken into account in the analysis.
5. Stratified sampling
In this method, the population is first divided into subgroups (or strata) who all share a similar characteristic. It is used when we might reasonably expect the measurement of interest to vary between the different subgroups, and we want to ensure representation from all the subgroups. For example, in a study of stroke outcomes, we may stratify the population by sex, to ensure equal representation of men and women. The study sample is then obtained by taking equal sample sizes from each stratum. In stratified sampling, it may also be appropriate to choose non-equal sample sizes from each stratum.
6. Quota sampling: This method of sampling is often used by market researchers. Interviewers are given a quota of subjects of a specified type to attempt to recruit. For example, an interviewer might be told to go out and select 20 adult men, 20 adult women, 10 teenage girls and 10 teenage boys so that they could interview them about their television viewing. Ideally the quotas chosen would proportionally represent the characteristics of the underlying population.
Whilst this has the advantage of being relatively straightforward and potentially representative, the chosen sample may not be representative of other characteristics that weren’t considered (a consequence of the non-random nature of sampling).
7. Snowball sampling: This method is commonly used in social sciences when investigating hard-to-reach groups. Existing subjects are asked to nominate further subjects known to them, so the sample increases in size like a rolling snowball. For example, when carrying out a survey of risk behaviours amongst intravenous drug users, participants may be asked to nominate other users to be interviewed.
8. Systematic sampling: Individuals are selected at regular intervals from the sampling frame. The intervals are chosen to ensure an adequate sample size. If you need a sample size n from a population of size x, you should select every x/nth individual for the sample. For example, if you wanted a sample size of 100 from a population of 1000, select every 1000/100 = 10th member of the sampling frame.