Sampling and Survey Research

The process through which individuals or other entities are selected to represent a larger population of interest

problem because it reflects a less representative sample and thus less generalizable findings obtained from that sample

Used to study the entire population of interest

Differences between the population & the sample, which can be estimated statistically, not to systematic sampling error

Needed in assessing whether we can compare the results obtained from samples of different populations

used to estimate how likely it is that, given a particular sample, the true population value will be within

how responses to one question (DV) are distributed within the responses to another question (IV)

An inferential statistic used to test hypotheses about the relationships between variables in a contingency table

A random selection procedure to ensure that there are no systematic biases in the selection of elements

The entire set of individuals or other entities to which study findings are to be generalized