Data Collection and Sampling
Statistics is a tool for converting data into information.
Where then does data come from? How is it gathered? How do we ensure it’s
accurate? Is the data reliable? Is it representative of the population from which it
was drawn? We now explore some of these issues.
Methods of Collecting Data
There are many methods used to collect or obtain data for statistical analysis.
Three of the most popular methods are:
• Direct Observation
• Experiments, and
• Surveys.
Surveys
A survey solicits information from people. The Response Rate (i.e. the proportion
of all people selected who complete the survey) is a key survey parameter.
Surveys may be administered in a variety of ways, e.g.
• Personal Interview,
• Telephone Interview, and
• Self-Administered Questionnaire.
Questionnaire Design
Over the years, a lot of thought has been put into the science of the design of
survey questions. Key design principles:
1. Keep the questionnaire as short as possible.
2. Ask short, simple, and clearly worded questions.
3. Start with demographic questions to help respondents get started comfortably.
4. Use dichotomous (yes | no) and multiple choice questions.
5. Use open-ended questions cautiously.
6. Avoid using leading-questions.
7. Pretest a questionnaire on a small number of people.
8. Think about the way you intend to use the collected data when preparing the
questionnaire.
Sampling
Statistical inference permits us to draw conclusions about a population based on a
sample.
Sampling (i.e. selecting a sub-set of a whole population) is often done for reasons
of cost (it’s less expensive to sample 1,000 television viewers than 100 million TV
viewers) and practicality (e.g. performing a crash test on every automobile
produced is impractical).
In any case, the sampled population and the target population should be similar to
one another.
Sampling Plans
A sampling plan is just a method or procedure for specifying how a sample will be
taken from a population.
We will focus our attention on these three methods:
• Simple Random Sampling,
• Stratified Random Sampling, and
• Cluster Sampling.
Simple Random Sampling
A simple random sample is a sample selected in such a way that every possible
sample of the same size is equally likely to be chosen.
Drawing three names from a hat containing all the names of the students in the
class is an example of a simple random sample: any group of three names is as
equally likely as picking any other group of three names.
Stratified Random Sampling
A stratified random sample is obtained by separating the population into mutually
exclusive sets, or strata, and then drawing simple random samples from each
stratum.
After the population has been stratified, we can use simple random sampling to
generate the complete sample
Cluster Sampling
A cluster sample is a simple random sample of groups or clusters of elements (vs. a
simple random sample of individual objects).
This method is useful when it is difficult or costly to develop a complete list of the
population members or when the population elements are widely dispersed
geographically.
Cluster sampling may increase sampling error due to similarities among cluster
members.