Discussing Sampling: Importance, Challenges, and Validity
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Question: What is the purpose of sampling? What are some concerns and dangers of sampling? How important is the sample design to data validity? Explain. Provide an example where a sample might misrepresent data validity.
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What is the Purpose of Sampling:
Ultimately as scientists, we want to predict or explain what a population of people will do. For example, you might want to predict the outcome of an upcoming election (population = everyone in the country) or know whether private schools lead to better outcomes than public schools (population = everyone who attends a private school, everyone who attends a public school). But it's really difficult to test everyone in the population as it would take a lot of time and money, and it's often virtually impossible to even figure out who is in the population, since lists don't always exist. Drawing a representative sample from the population and drawing conclusions about the population based on the behaviour of that sample saves us time and money, so we do that instead.
What are Some Concerns and Dangers of Sampling?
1. We always want to have a sample that represents the population. That means that our sample should have the same racial, ...
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