SAMPLING
METHODS
1
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
🞆 Learn the reasons for sampling
🞆 Develop an understanding about different sampling
methods
🞆 Distinguish between probability & non probability
sampling
🞆 Discuss the relative advantages & disadvantages of
each sampling methods
2
WHAT IS RESEARCH?
• “Scientific research is systematic, controlled,
empirical, and critical investigation of natural
phenomena guided by theory and hypotheses
about the presumed relations among such
phenomena.”
– Kerlinger, 1986
• Research is an organized and systematic way of
finding answers to questions
3
IMPORTANT COMPONENTS OF EMPIRICAL
RESEARCH
🞆 Problem statement, research questions, purposes, benefits
🞆 Theory, assumptions, background literature
🞆 Variables and hypotheses
🞆 Operational definitions and measurement
🞆 Research design and methodology
🞆 Instrumentation, sampling
🞆 Data analysis
🞆 Conclusions, interpretations, recommendations
4
SAMPLING
🞆 A sample is “a smaller (but hopefully
representative) collection of units from a
population used to determine truths about that
population” (Field, 2005)
🞆 Why sample?
⚫Resources (time, money) and workload
⚫Gives results with known accuracy that can be
calculated mathematically
🞆 The sampling frame is the list from which the
potential respondents are drawn
⚫Registrar’s office
⚫Class rosters
⚫Must assess sampling frame errors 5
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?
6
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
7
8
SAMPLING BREAKDOWN
SAMPLING…….
STUDY POPULATION
SAMPL
E
TARGET POPULATION
9
TYPES OF SAMPLES
🞆 Probability (Random) Samples
🞆 Simple random sample
⚫ Systematic random sample
⚫ Stratified random sample
⚫ Multistage sample
⚫ Multiphase sample
⚫ Cluster sample
🞆 Non-Probability Samples
⚫ Convenience sample
⚫ Purposive sample
⚫ Quota
10
PROCESS
🞆 The sampling process comprises several
stages:
⚫Defining the population of concern
⚫Specifying a sampling frameSpecifying 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 11
⚫Reviewing the sampling process
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.
12
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.
13
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
14
the population
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.
Such designs are also referred to as 'self-
weighting' because all sampled units are given
the same weight.
15
PROBABILITY SAMPLING…….
🞆 Probability sampling includes:
🞆 Simple Random Sampling,
🞆 Systematic Sampling,
🞆 Stratified Random Sampling,
🞆 Cluster Sampling
🞆 Multistage Sampling.
🞆 Multiphase sampling
16
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. 17
NONPROBABILITY SAMPLING…….
• Nonprobability Sampling includes:
Accidental SamplingNonprobability Sampling
includes: Accidental Sampling, Quota 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.
18
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.
19
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.
20
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.
21
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 of22
10').
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.
23
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.
24
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.
25
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
26
STRATIFIED SAMPLING…….
Draw a sample from each
stratum
27
POSTSTRATIFICATION
🞆 Stratification is sometimes introduced after the
sampling phase in a process called "poststratification“.
🞆 This approach is typically implemented due to a lack of
prior knowledge of an appropriate stratifying variable or
when the experimenter lacks the necessary information
to create a stratifying variable during the sampling
phase. Although the method is susceptible to the pitfalls
of post hoc approaches, it can provide several benefits
in the right situation. Implementation usually follows a
simple random sample. In addition to allowing for
stratification on an ancillary variable, poststratification
can be used to implement weighting, which can improve
the precision of a sample's estimates.
28
OVERSAMPLING
🞆 Choice-based sampling is one of the
stratified sampling strategies. In this, data
are stratified on the target and a sample is
taken from each strata so that the rare target
class will be more represented in the sample.
The model is then built on this biased
sample. The effects of the input variables on
the target are often estimated with more
precision with the choice-based sample even
when a smaller overall sample size is taken,
compared to a random sample. The results
usually must be adjusted to correct for the
oversampling.
29
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.
30
🞆 All units from the selected clusters are
studied.
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.
🞆 Often used to evaluate vaccination coverage
in EPI
31
CLUSTER SAMPLING…….
• Identification of clusters
– List all cities, towns, villages & wards of cities with their
population falling in target area under study.
– Calculate cumulative population & divide by 30, this gives
sampling interval.
– Select a random no. less than or equal to sampling interval
having same no. of digits. This forms 1st cluster.
– Random no.+ sampling interval = population of 2nd cluster.
– Second cluster + sampling interval = 4th cluster.
– Last or 30th cluster = 29th cluster + sampling interval
32
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.
33
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STRATA AND
CLUSTERS
🞆 Although strata and clusters are both non-
overlapping subsets of the population, they
differ in several ways.
🞆 All strata are represented in the sample; but
only a subset of clusters are in the sample.
🞆 With stratified sampling, the best survey
results occur when elements within strata are
internally homogeneousWith stratified
sampling, the best survey results occur when
elements within strata are internally
homogeneous. However, with cluster
sampling, the best results occur when
elements within clusters are internally 34
heterogeneous
MULTISTAGE SAMPLING
🞆 Complex form of cluster sampling in which two or more
levels of units are embedded one in the other.
🞆 First stage, random number of districts chosen in all
states.
🞆 Followed by random number of talukas, villages.
🞆 Then third stage units will be houses.
🞆 All ultimate units (houses, for instance) selected at last
step are surveyed.
35
MULTISTAGE SAMPLING……..
🞆 This technique, is essentially the process of taking
random samples of preceding random samples.
🞆 Not as effective as true random sampling, but
probably solves more of the problems inherent to
random sampling.
🞆 An effective strategy because it banks on multiple
randomizations. As such, extremely useful.
🞆 Multistage sampling used frequently when a
complete list of all members of the population not
exists and is inappropriate.
🞆 Moreover, by avoiding the use of all sample units in
all selected clusters, multistage sampling avoids
the large, and perhaps unnecessary, costs
associated with traditional cluster sampling.
36
MULTI PHASE SAMPLING
🞆 Part of the information collected from whole sample & part
from subsample.
🞆 In Tb survey MT in all cases – Phase I
🞆 X –Ray chest in MT +ve cases – Phase II
🞆 Sputum examination in X – Ray +ve cases - Phase III
🞆 Survey by such procedure is less costly, less laborious &
more purposeful
37
QUOTA SAMPLING
🞆 The population is first segmented into
mutually exclusive The population is first segmented into
mutually exclusive sub-groups, just as in
stratified sampling.
🞆 Then judgment used to select subjects or units from
each segment based on a specified proportion.
🞆 For example, an interviewer may be told to sample
200 females and 300 males between the age of 45
and 60.
🞆 It is this second step which makes the technique one
of non-probability sampling.
🞆 In quota sampling the selection of the sample is
non-random.
🞆 For example interviewers might be tempted to
interview those who look most helpful. The problem 38
is that these samples may be biased because not
everyone gets a chance of selection. This random
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
39
more subjects into the sample.
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
40
PANEL SAMPLING
🞆 Method of first selecting a group of participants through a
random sampling method and then asking that group for the
same information again several times over a period of time.
🞆 Therefore, each participant is given same survey or interview
at two or more time points; each period of data collection
called a "wave".
🞆 This sampling methodology often chosen for large scale or
nation-wide studies in order to gauge changes in the
population with regard to any number of variables from
chronic illness to job stress to weekly food expenditures.
🞆 Panel sampling can also be used to inform researchers about
within-person health changes due to age or help explain
changes in continuous dependent variables such as spousal
interaction.
🞆 There have been several proposed methods of analyzing
panel sample data, including growth curves.
41