Sample and Population

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nA population is the complete set of all individuals (persons and object) that have similar characteristics and the researcher is interested in them. For instance, the racecar drivers, college-level footballers, pregnant mothers, disabled war veterans are considered as populations (Blaikie, 2010). Population encompasses two main groups i.e. accessible population and target population. The target population is the group of objects or people to which the researcher wants to generalize the study findings, for instance, all pregnant teenagers. Accessible population, however, is the portion of the population in which the researchers have realistic access (Blaikie, 2010). The accessible population can be a subset of the target population, for instance, all pregnant teenagers in the state of California.

nContrary, a sample is a subset of population. Therefore, a sample is the selected individuals or objects that the researcher chooses to participate in a study. However, sampling is the process of choosing or selecting a group of events, people, behaviors or other individuals (Blaikie, 2010). In addition, a sampling frame is a list of all individuals in the population from which a sample is drawn. A sampling frame is very important because it gives an equal opportunity for all elements in a research to be selected as samples. A sample could be huge if the population in the study is extremely large, for instance, a national or international population.

nSamples are very important in a scientific research because it is impossible to study all members of the population due to resources and strategic demands necessary in the study. It would be very costly and time consuming to study all elements in the population (Blaikie, 2010). Alternatively, a few participants are chosen who act as representative sample for the population. However, the research sample must be drawn from the population. Therefore, the results from the research sample are related to the population. This is the main purpose of the inferential research statistics. Inferential statistics uses information from a small group of individuals to make conclusions of all elements of the population. The scientific research has various forms of samples such as stratified samples, random samples and convenience sample (Blaikie, 2010). Nonetheless, the samples have the common goals of precisely establishing a smaller subset from the larger set of entire participants. In this respect, samples are representatives of the larger set.

nSample size depends on the size of the population hence the larger the population the larger the sample. Sample should be as large as possible to increase the representativeness of the sample. Increasing the size of the sample decreases the sampling error. Besides, sample size depends on the type of studies. For instance, qualitative studies require small samples relative to quantitative studies (Blaikie, 2010). Further, it also relies on the number of variables in the study. The sample size increases as the number of variables in a study increases. This ensures that the sample size detects the significant relationships or differences between the samples.

nResearch ethics refers to principles and standards that a researcher applies when conducting a scientific research. These include morals and designs in human and animal experimentation (Gay, Mills, & Airasian, 2012). The researcher should not use the information gathered from the research for unintended purposes. Therefore, ethics ensures that the researcher maintains a moral responsibility towards the participants. Moreover, it protects the rights of participants in the study as well as their sensitivity and privacy (Gay, Mills, & Airasian, 2012). Besides, ethics ensures that the confidentiality of the participants is carried out by protecting anonymity and securing their privacy.

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nReferences

nBlaikie, N. (2010). Designing social research (1st ed.). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

nGay, L., Mills, G., & Airasian, P. (2012). Educational research (1st ed.). Boston: Pearson.