Sampling Learning goal: To further our knowledge of the sampling methods used in sociological research.

Immediate activity No books, no discussion. Give me five: Name a positivist sociologist (bonus point for identifying the research method they used). Name an interpretivist sociologist (bonus point for identifying the research method they used). Briefly (but accurately!)explain why feminists disagree with positivist methodology. Explain what would be done in an correspondence test and an actor test. Why do interpretivists argue that questionnaires will not give you valid results.

Sampling is extremely important! A sample is a smaller representative group drawn from the survey population. Our sample must represent the population which we want to apply our research too! Is our classroom representative of Nottingham?

Sampling Frame A sampling frame consists of a list of people for instance; The Register of Electors The Royal Mail (postcodes) UK Doctors lists Census - Everyone on the list should be used or the sample would not be representative.

Random Sampling Ask all students to write their names on a piece of paper and enter them into a hat. Pick out 5 names at random and use that as our sample. Is it representative of our class? Should be 2 boys – 3 girls.

Stratified-Random Sample Using a sampling frame, a sociologist would then separate the frame into smaller groups such as social class, ethnicity, age etc. Then take the required random number from each groups to ensure the sample is representative. Photocopy page 288 and 290 of Ken Browne.

Quasi random sampling Selecting every nth person on a list.

Quota Sampling This is where the researcher goes and selects participants according to their research. The choice is completely up to the researcher and may produce unreliable or invalid results.

Snowball Sample

Opportunity sampling Chooses from those individuals who are easiest to access e.g. prisoners

Remember – Not all samples are representative of the whole population. If you wanted to conduct research into working class culture, then your sample must only represent the working class and not the whole population.

Interpretivist v positivist Positivists want their research to be scientific and generalisable. They favour methods which will produce a sample that is representative of the research population so that ‘social facts’ that apply to the whole of the research population can be discovered. Interpretivists are less concerned with generlisabilty as they see the validity of the research as the most important factor. Through their research they want to gain the most understanding about the meaning individuals (sometimes referred to as social actors) place on events and interactions in their lives.

What kind of questions may you be asked? Link to the exam! What kind of questions may you be asked? Outline and explain two important considerations different sociologists make when obtaining their research samples. (10 marks)