From Dr. Rowena Boquiren’s
(click to see her website) Handout 7 in Social Science 199, 2nd Sem
2003-2004
UNIT OF ANALYSIS: objects of study (individuals, households, communities, countries)
UNIT OF OBSERVATION: the level at which the
unit of analysis is investigated (individual representing the household, etc .)
POPULATION OR UNIVERSE: totality of ALL units of
analysis
SAMPLE: proportion or section of the population that
represents such population
SAMPLING FRAME: complete reference (e.g.
list or map) of the sampling population from which a sample is drawn
SAMPLING UNIT: either a single sampling
element or a collection of elements
PROBABILITY OR RANDOM SAMPLE: a procedure of sampling
that selects at random elements of the sample so that the sample is
representative of the universe
SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLING: sampling procedure in
which all elements in the universe have an equal chance of being chosen as part
of the sample
SYSTEMATIC RANDOM SAMPLING: sample constructed by
selecting the kth element from start position in sampling frame
STRATIFIED RANDOM SAMPLING: sampling procedure on
non-overlapping groups based on shared attributes
CLUSTER RANDOM SAMPLING – also called area sampling
and is generally used when it is impossible or impractical to construct a
sampling frame in which the sampling units are sampling elements. Selection is
done among (not every clusters)
QUOTA SAMPLING: a nonprobability
equivalent of stratified sampling with the added requirement that each stratum
is generally represented in the sample in the same proportion as the entire
population
SNOWBALL SAMPLING: also called chain referral
sampling that is useful for subculture, subgroups, or deviant groups where
respondents of certain characteristics are only visible to those who belong in
them
INCIDENTAL OR CONVENIENCE: selection based on the researchers’ easy to the target sampling
population
PURPOSIVE: also known as judgmental sampling,
selection according to criteria defined by the purposes of the study