METHODS OF SAMPLING

INTRODUCTION
Empirical field studies require collection of first-hand information or data pertaining to the units of study from the field. The units of study may include geographical areas like districts, taluks, cities or villages which are covered by the study, or institutions or households about which information is required, or persons from whom information is required, or persons from whom information is available. The aggregate of the entire unit pertaining to a study is called the population or the universe. Population is the target group to be studied. It is the aggregate of elements about which we wish to take inference. A member of the population is an element. It is the subject on which measurement is taken. It is the unit of study. A part of the population is known as a sampling. The process of drawing a sample from a larger population is called sampling. The list of sampling units from which a sample is taken is called the sampling frame, e.g.: a map, a telephone directory, a list of industrial undertakings, a list of car licensees etc. Illustration: A researcher wants to survey the brand performance of households regarding toilet soaps in jayanagar area of the city of Bangalore. A household is the sampling unit. The total of all households in jayanagar area is the population. Suppose in a detailed map of jayanagar, but list of households is not available, each block may be consisted a sampling unit. A list of such blocks will be used as the frame.

MEANING OF SAMPLE
A representative part or a single item from a larger whole or group especially when presented for inspection or shown as evidence of quality. In statistics, a sample is a subset of a population. Typically, the population is very large, making a census or a

complete enumeration of all the values in the population impractical or impossible. The sample represents a subset of manageable size. Samples are collected and statistics are calculated from the samples so that one can make inferences or extrapolations from the sample to the population.

MEANING OF SAMPLING
A Sampling is a part of the total population. It can be an individual element or a group of elements selected from the population. Although it is a subset, it is representative of the population and suitable for research in terms of cost, convenience, and time. The sample group can be selected based on a probability or a non probability approach. A sample usually consists of various units of the population. The size of the sample is represented by n. Sampling is the act, process, or technique of selecting a representative part of a population for the purpose of determining the characteristics of the whole population. In other words, the process of selecting a sample from a population using special sampling techniques called sampling. It should be ensured in the sampling process itself that the sample selected is representative of the population.

MEANING OF SAMPLE DESIGN

A sample design is a definite plan for obtaining a sample from a given population. It refers to the technique or the procedure the researcher would adopt in selecting items for the sample. Sample design may as well lay down the number of items to be included in the sampling i.e., size of the sample. Sample design is determined before data are collected. There are many sample designs from which a researcher can choose. Some design is relatively more precise and easier to apply than others. Researcher must select/ prepare a sample design which should be reliable and appropriate for his research study.

METHODS OF SAMPLING
1. Probability sampling(random sampling) a) Simple or unrestricted random sampling b) Complex or Restricted random sampling i. ii. iii. iv. v. Stratified sampling Systematic sampling Cluster sampling Area sampling Multi-stage sampling

vi.

Sampling with probability proportional to size

2. Non-probability sampling(non-random sampling) a) Convenience sampling b) Judgment or purposive sampling c) Quota sampling

1. Probability sampling Also know as Random sampling or Chance sampling. Under this design, every item of the universe has an equal chance of inclusion in the sample. It is a lottery method in which individual units are picked up from the whole group not deliberately but by some mechanical process. It is blind chance alone that determines whether one item is selected or not. The results obtained from probability or random sampling can be assured in terms of probability, that is, we can measure the errors of estimation or the significance Random sampling ensures the law of statistical regularity (which states that if on an average the sample chosen is a random one, the sample will have the same composition and characteristics as the universe). This is why it is considered as the best technique of selecting a very representative sample In sum, Random sampling: 1. Gives each element in the population an equal probability of getting into the sample; and all choices are independent of one another 2. Gives each possible sample combination an equal probability of being chosen.

a) Simple or unrestricted random sampling It is technique in which sample is so drawn that each and every unit in the population has an equal and independent chance of being included in the sample. An equal chance means equal probability of selection, e.g. in a population of 300, each element theoretically has 1/300th chance of being selected. In a population of 1000, each element has 1/1000th chance of being selected.

Equal probability selection method is described as Epsem sampling. An independent chance means that the draw of one element will not affect the chances of other elements being selected. Where some elements are purposely excluded from the sample, the resulting sample is not a random one. Hence, all elements should be included in the sample frame to draw a random sample.

b) Complex or restricted random sampling Probability sampling under restricted sampling techniques may result in complex random sampling designs. Such designs may as well be called mixed sampling designs for many of such designs may represent a combination of probability and non- probability sampling procedures in selecting a sample. Some of the popular complex random sampling designs are as follows: Stratified sampling A stratified sample is obtained by independently selecting a separate simple random sample from each population stratum. A population can be divided into different groups may be based on some characteristic or variable like income of education. For e.g. like anybody with ten years of education will be in group A, between 10 and 20 group B and between 20 and 30 group C. These groups are referred to as strata. You can then randomly select from each stratum a given number of units which may be based on proportion like if group A has 100 persons while group B has 50, and C has 30 you may decide you will take 10% of each. So you end up with 10 from group A, 5 from group B and 3 from group C. Systematic sampling The most practical way of sampling is to select every ith item on a list; an element of randomness is introduced into this kind of a sampling by using random numbers to pick up the unit with which to start. E.g. if a 4% sample is desired, the first item would be selected randomly from the first 25 and thereafter every 25th item automatically is included in the sample. Thus, in systematic sampling, only the first unit is selected randomly and the remaining units of the sample are selected at fixed intervals.

Cluster sampling A cluster sample is obtained by selecting clusters from the population on the basis of simple random sampling. The sample comprises a census of each random cluster selected. For example, a cluster may be something like a village or a school, a state. So you decide all the elementary schools in New Delhi are clusters. You want 20 schools selected. You can use simple or systematic random sampling to select the schools, and then every school selected becomes a cluster.

Area sampling If clusters happen to be some geographic subdivisions, then it is better known as area sampling. In larger field surveys, clusters consisting of specific geographical areas like districts, taalukas, villages or blocks in a city are randomly drawn. As the geographical areas are selected as sampling units in such cases, their sampling is called area sampling. It is not a separate method of sampling, but forms part of cluster sampling. In a country like India where a state is divided into districts, districts into talukas and talukas into towns and villages, area sampling is done on the basis of these administrative units in multi-stages.

Multi-stage sampling Is a further development of the principle of cluster sampling. Ex. suppose we want to investigate the working efficiency of nationalized banks in India and we want to take a sample of few banks for this purpose the first stage is to select large primary sampling units such as States then we select certain districts and interview all the banks in the chosen districts. This is two-stage sampling design.

Sampling with probability proportional to size In some cases the sample designer has access to an "auxiliary variable" or "size measure", believed to be correlated to the variable of interest, for each element in the population. These data can be used to improve accuracy in sample design. One option is to use the auxiliary variable as a basis for stratification, as discussed above. Another option is probability-proportional-to-size ('PPS') sampling, in which the selection probability for each element is set to be proportional to its size measure, up to a maximum of 1. In a simple PPS design, these selection probabilities can then be used as the basis for Poisson sampling. However, this has the drawback of variable sample size, and different portions of the population may still be over- or under-represented due to chance variation in selections. To address this problem, PPS may be combined with a systematic approach. Example: Suppose we have six schools with populations of 150, 180, 200, 220, 260, and 490 students respectively (total 1500 students), and we want to use student population as the basis for a PPS sample of size three. To do this, we could allocate the first school numbers 1 to 150, the second school 151 to 330 (= 150 + 180), the third school 331 to 530, and so on to the last school (1011 to 1500). We then generate a random start between 1 and 500 (equal to 1500/3) and count through the school populations by multiples of 500. If our random start was 137, we would select the schools which have been allocated numbers 137, 637, and 1137, i.e. the first, fourth, and sixth schools.

3.Non-probability sampling(non-random sampling) d) Convenience sampling e) Judgment or purposive sampling f) Quota sampling

CONCLUSION
From a brief description of the various sample design presented above, we can say that normally one should resort to simple random sampling because under it bias is generally eliminated and the sampling error can be estimated. But purposive sampling is consisted more appropriate when the universe happens to be small and a known characteristic of it is to be studied intensively. There are situation in real life under which sample designs other than simple random samples may be consisted better and as such the same may be used. In a situation when random sampling is not possible, then we have to use necessarily a sampling design other than random sampling. At times, several methods of sampling may well be used in the same study.

REFERENCE
Kothari, C.R.., Research Methodology Methods and Techniques, 2nd ed., New Age International Publishers, 2004. Krishnaswami, O.R., and Ranganatham, M., Methodology Of Research In Social Sciences., 2nded., Himalaya Publishing House,2005. Pillai, R.S.N., and Bagavathi., Statistics Theory and Practice.,7thed., S.Chand & Company Ltd, 2008.