SAMPLING STRATEGIES

The Sampling Design

Fig. 11.1
Process

Define the
Population
Determine the Sampling
Frame
Select Sampling Technique(s)

Determine the Sample Size

Execute the Sampling Process

What is a sample?

 A sample is a subset of your

population by which you select to be
participants in your study.
What is sampling?

 selecting a portion of the population,

in your research area, which will be a
representation of the whole
population.
 What are sampling strategies?

 The strategy is the plan you set forth to be sure that the sample
you use in your research study represents the population from
which you drew your sample.
 For example, if your study included the living donors then the
strategy you chose to enter them would help support that they
are representative of all living donors. As an introduction, there
are terms associated with sampling:
 population, sample, sampling frame, eligibility criteria, inclusion
criteria, exclusion criteria, representativeness, sampling
designs, sampling bias, sampling error, effect size, and attrition.
Types of sampling include convenience, accidental, snowball,
quota sample, purposive sampling, simple random sampling
and cluster sampling,. The parts of the sampling process and
terms used by researchers sometimes overlap and any
researcher will find it helpful to become familiar with the terms
listed above. Within this fact sheet, we will focus only on
sampling strategies.
 In quantitative studies, the
representativeness is the important quality
of a sample. A question you should ask
yourself is: ‘Does this sample represent
the key characteristics of the population
 we are studying?’ Specific sampling
procedures are less likely to result in
biased samples than others, yet there is
not a guarantee of a representative
sample. Researchers operate under
conditions in which error is possible. As a
quantitative researcher, we are to
minimize or control for errors.
SAMPLING……
 What is your population of interest?
 To whom do you want to generalize your
results?
 All doctors
 School children
 Indians
 Women aged 15-45 years
 Other
 Can you sample the entire population?

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 SAMPLING…….
 3 factors that influence sample representative-
ness
 Sampling procedure
 Sample size
 Participation (response)

 When might you sample the entire population?

 When your population is very small
 When you have extensive resources
 When you don’t expect a very high response

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HOW LARGE MUST MY SAMPLE BE?
It all depends on:
 The research purposes, questions and design;
 The population size;
 The confidence level and confidence interval
required;
 The likely response rate;
 The accuracy required (the smallest sampling
error sought);
 The kinds of variables to be used (categorical,
continuous);
 The statistics to be used;
HOW LARGE MUST MY SAMPLE BE?
 The number of strata required;
 The number of variables included in the study;
 The variability of the factor under study;
 The kind(s) of sample;
 The representativeness of the sample;
 The allowances to be made for attrition and non-
response;
 The need to keep proportionality in a
proportionate sample;
 The kind of research that is being undertaken
(qualitative/quantitative/mixed methods).
 SAMPLE SIZE
N S N S
10 10 400
196
15 14 500
217
30 28 1,000
278
100 80 1,500
306
N = Population; S = Sample
200
Note: 132 increases,3,000
As the population the proportion
346
of the population in the sample decreases.
 SAMPLE SIZE
 Ensure a sufficiently large sample for each
variable.
 Samples in qualitative research must be large
enough to generate ‘thick descriptions’.
 A large sample does not guarantee
representativeness; representativeness
depends on the sampling strategy.
 Sample size also depends on the
heterogeneity or homogeneity of the
population: if it is highly homogeneous then a
smaller sample may be possible.
 SAMPLE SIZE
Large samples are preferable when:
 there are many variables;
 only small differences or small relationships are
expected or predicted;
 the sample will be broken down into subgroups;
 the sample is heterogeneous in terms of the
variables under study;
 reliable measures of the dependent variable are
unavailable.
SAMPLING BREAKDOWN 14
 SAMPLING…….

STUDY POPULATION

SAMPLE

TARGET POPULATION

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 Classification of Sampling
Fig. 11.2 Techniques

Sampling
Techniques

Nonprobability Probability
Sampling Sampling
Techniques Techniques

Convenience Judgmental Snowball

Sampling Sampling Sampling

Simple Systematic Stratified Cluster

Random Sampling Sampling Sampling
Sampling
 Types of Samples

 Probability (Random) Samples

 Simple random sample
• Systematic random sample
• Stratified random sample
• Cluster sample
 Non-Probability Samples
• Convenience sample
• Purposive sample
• Quota

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 Process
 The sampling process comprises several
stages:
• Defining the population of concern
• Specifying a sampling frame, a set of items
or events possible to measure
• Specifying a sampling method for selecting
items or events from the frame
• Determining the sample size
• Implementing the sampling plan
• Sampling and data collecting
• Reviewing the sampling process

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 Sampling bias: This involves problems
in your sampling, which reveals that
your sample is not representative of
your population.
 Sampling error: This error occurs when
there is a fluctuation of the statistical
value from one sample to another
when it is calculated from your same
population.
 Sampling frame: This is the list of the
elements in your population and from
this your sample is drawn.
Population definition
 A population can be defined as including
all people or items with the characteristic
one wishes to understand.
 Because there is very rarely enough time
or money to gather information from
everyone or everything in a population,
the goal becomes finding a
representative sample (or subset) of that
population.

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Population definition
 A population can be defined as including
all people or items with the characteristic
one wishes to understand.
 Because there is very rarely enough time
or money to gather information from
everyone or everything in a population,
the goal becomes finding a
representative sample (or subset) of that
population.

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 Population definition…….
 Note also that the population from which the
sample is drawn may not be the same as the
population about which we actually want
information. Often there is large but not
complete overlap between these two groups
due to frame issues etc .
 Sometimes they may be entirely separate -
for instance, we might study rats in order to
get a better understanding of human health,
or we might study records from people born
in 2008 in order to make predictions about
people born in 2009.
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 SAMPLING FRAME
 In the most straightforward case, such as the
sentencing of a batch of material from
production (acceptance sampling by lots), it is
possible to identify and measure every single
item in the population and to include any one of
them in our sample. However, in the more
general case this is not possible. There is no way
to identify all rats in the set of all rats. Where
voting is not compulsory, there is no way to
identify which people will actually vote at a
forthcoming election (in advance of the election)
 As a remedy, we seek a sampling frame which
has the property that we can identify every
single element and include any in our sample .
 The sampling frame must be representative of
the population

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THE REPRESENTATIVENESS OF THE
SAMPLE
 What is being represented (e.g. groups,
variables, spread of population).
 If the sample has unequal sub-groups, then it
may be necessary equalize the sample by
weighting, to represent more fairly the
population.
 ACCESS TO THE SAMPLE
 Is access to the sample permitted, practicable,
realistic?
 Who will give/withhold/deny permission to
access the sample?
 Who are the ‘gatekeepers’?
 SAMPLING STRATEGIES
 Probability sample
 Non-probability sample
 PROBABILITY SAMPLING
 A probability sampling scheme is one in which
every unit in the population has a chance (greater
than zero) of being selected in the sample, and
this probability can be accurately determined.

 . When every element in the population does have

the same probability of selection, this is known as
an 'equal probability of selection' (EPS) design.

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 PROBABILITY SAMPLING…….

 Probability sampling includes:

 Simple Random Sampling,
 Systematic Sampling,
 Stratified Random Sampling,
 Cluster Sampling
 Multistage Sampling.
 Multiphase sampling

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 NON PROBABILITY SAMPLING
 Any sampling method where some elements of
population have no chance of selection (these are
sometimes referred to as 'out of
coverage'/'undercovered'), or where the probability of
selection can't be accurately determined. It involves
the selection of elements based on assumptions
regarding the population of interest, which forms the
criteria for selection. Hence, because the selection of
elements is nonrandom, nonprobability sampling not
allows the estimation of sampling errors..
 Example: We visit every household in a given street,
and interview the first person to answer the door. In
any household with more than one occupant, this is a
nonprobability sample, because some people are
more likely to answer the door (e.g. an unemployed
person who spends most of their time at home is
more likely to answer than an employed housemate
who might be at work when the interviewer calls) and
it's not practical to calculate these probabilities.

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NONPROBABILITY SAMPLING…….
• Nonprobability Sampling includes:
Accidental Sampling, Quota Sampling
and Purposive Sampling. In addition,
nonresponse effects may turn any
probability design into a nonprobability
design if the characteristics of
nonresponse are not well understood,
since nonresponse effectively modifies
each element's probability of being
sampled.
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 SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLING
• Applicable when population is small,
homogeneous & readily available
• All subsets of the frame are given an equal
probability. Each element of the frame
thus has an equal probability of selection.
• It provides for greatest number of possible
samples. This is done by assigning a
number to each unit in the sampling
frame.
• A table of random number or lottery
system is used to determine which units
are to be selected.
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SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLING……..

Estimates are easy to calculate.
 Simple random sampling is always an EPS design, but not
all EPS designs are simple random sampling.
 Disadvantages
 If sampling frame large, this method impracticable.
 Minority subgroups of interest in population may not be
present in sample in sufficient numbers for study.

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 REPLACEMENT OF SELECTED UNITS
 Sampling schemes may be without replacement
('WOR' - no element can be selected more than
once in the same sample) or with replacement
('WR' - an element may appear multiple times in
the one sample).
 For example, if we catch fish, measure them,
and immediately return them to the water
before continuing with the sample, this is a WR
design, because we might end up catching and
measuring the same fish more than once.
However, if we do not return the fish to the
water (e.g. if we eat the fish), this becomes a
WOR design.
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 SYSTEMATIC SAMPLING
 Systematic sampling relies on arranging the
target population according to some ordering
scheme and then selecting elements at regular
intervals through that ordered list.
 Systematic sampling involves a random start and
then proceeds with the selection of every kth
element from then onwards. In this case,
k=(population size/sample size).
 It is important that the starting point is not
automatically the first in the list, but is instead
randomly chosen from within the first to the kth
element in the list.
 A simple example would be to select every 10th
name from the telephone directory (an 'every 10th'
sample, also referred to as 'sampling with a skip of
10').
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SYSTEMATIC SAMPLING……
As described above, systematic sampling is an EPS method,
because all elements have the same probability of selection (in
the example given, one in ten). It is not 'simple random
sampling' because different subsets of the same size have
different selection probabilities - e.g. the set {4,14,24,...,994}
has a one-in-ten probability of selection, but the set
{4,13,24,34,...} has zero probability of selection.

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 SYSTEMATIC SAMPLING……
 ADVANTAGES:
 Sample easy to select
 Suitable sampling frame can be identified easily
 Sample evenly spread over entire reference population
 DISADVANTAGES:
 Sample may be biased if hidden periodicity in
population coincides with that of selection.
 Difficult to assess precision of estimate from one
survey.

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 STRATIFIED SAMPLING
Where population embraces a number of distinct
categories, the frame can be organized into
separate "strata." Each stratum is then sampled as
an independent sub-population, out of which
individual elements can be randomly selected.
 Every unit in a stratum has same chance of being
selected.
 Using same sampling fraction for all strata ensures
proportionate representation in the sample.
 Adequate representation of minority subgroups of
interest can be ensured by stratification & varying
sampling fraction between strata as required.

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 STRATIFIED SAMPLING……
 Finally, since each stratum is treated as an
independent population, different sampling
approaches can be applied to different strata.
 Drawbacks to using stratified sampling.
 First, sampling frame of entire population
has to be prepared separately for each
stratum
 Second, when examining multiple criteria,
stratifying variables may be related to some,
but not to others, further complicating the
design, and potentially reducing the utility of
the strata.
 Finally, in some cases (such as designs with
a large number of strata, or those with a
specified minimum sample size per group),
stratified sampling can potentially require a
larger sample than would other methods 38
STRATIFIED SAMPLING…….
Draw a sample from each
stratum

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 CLUSTER SAMPLING
 Cluster sampling is an example of 'two-stage
sampling' .
 First stage a sample of areas is chosen;
 Second stage a sample of respondents within
those areas is selected.
 Population divided into clusters of
homogeneous units, usually based on
geographical contiguity.
 Sampling units are groups rather than
individuals.
 A sample of such clusters is then selected.
 All units from the selected clusters are
studied.
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CLUSTER SAMPLING…….
 Advantages :
 Cuts down on the cost of preparing a
sampling frame.
 This can reduce travel and other
administrative costs.
 Disadvantages: sampling error is
higher for a simple random sample of
same size.

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CLUSTER SAMPLING…….
Two types of cluster sampling
methods.
One-stage sampling. All of the
elements within selected clusters are
included in the sample.
Two-stage sampling. A subset of
elements within selected clusters are
randomly selected for inclusion in the
sample.
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 MATCHED RANDOM SAMPLING
A method of assigning participants to groups in
which pairs of participants are first matched on some
characteristic and then individually assigned
randomly to groups.
 The Procedure for Matched random sampling can be
briefed with the following contexts,
 Two samples in which the members are clearly
paired, or are matched explicitly by the researcher.
For example, IQ measurements or pairs of identical
twins.
 Those samples in which the same attribute, or
variable, is measured twice on each subject, under
different circumstances. Commonly called repeated
measures.
 Examples include the times of a group of athletes
for 1500m before and after a week of special
training; the milk yields of cows before and after
being fed a particular diet.
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 CONVENIENCE SAMPLING
 Sometimes known as grab or opportunity sampling or
accidental or haphazard sampling.
 A type of nonprobability sampling which involves the sample
being drawn from that part of the population which is close to
hand. That is, readily available and convenient.
 The researcher using such a sample cannot scientifically
make generalizations about the total population from this
sample because it would not be representative enough.
 For example, if the interviewer was to conduct a survey at a
shopping center early in the morning on a given day, the
people that he/she could interview would be limited to those
given there at that given time, which would not represent the
views of other members of society in such an area, if the
survey was to be conducted at different times of day and
several times per week.
 This type of sampling is most useful for pilot testing.
 In social science research, snowball sampling is a similar
technique, where existing study subjects are used to recruit
more subjects into the sample.

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 Convenience Sampling
Convenience sampling attempts to obtain a
sample of convenient elements. Often,
respondents are selected because they happen to
be in the right place at the right time.

• use of students, and members of social

organizations
• mall intercept interviews without qualifying the
respondents
• department stores using charge account lists
• “people on the street” interviews
 Convenience Sample
 Selection of whichever individuals are
easiest to reach
 It is done at the “convenience” of the
researcher

Math
Alliance
Project
Judgmental sampling or Purposive
sampling
 - The researcher chooses the sample
based on who they think would be
appropriate for the study. This is used
primarily when there is a limited
number of people that have expertise
in the area being researched

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What sampling method u recommend?
 Determining proportion of undernourished five
year olds in a village.
 Investigating nutritional status of preschool
children.
 Selecting maternity records for the study of
previous abortions or duration of postnatal stay.
 In estimation of immunization coverage in a
province, data on seven children aged 12-23
months in 30 clusters are used to determine
proportion of fully immunized children in the
province.
 Give reasons why cluster sampling is used in
this survey.
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