GGR277H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Ethnography, Content Analysis, Snowball Sampling
Document Summary
Introduction the term sampling refers to the selection of individuals and other units of analysis for research. Element or unit: a single case in the population. In the social sciences that element or unit is usually a person, but many other things can be sampled as well: nations, cities, regions, schools, firms etc. Population : all the cases about which you are seeking knowledge, or all the cases to which your conclusions are meant to apply. Sampling frame: the list of elements from which the sample will be selected. Sample: the elements selected for investigation, a subset of the population. Representative sample: a sample that is a microcosm of the population, one that represents its essential characteristics. Probability sample: a sample selected using a random process such that each unit in the population has a known chance of being selected. The aim of probability sampling is to keep sampling error to a minimum.
