Name That Sample

NAME THAT SAMPLE!=

Identify the type of sample used in each of the following situations. Scroll down to= the bottom for the answers.

1. A telemarketing company calls every hundredth na= me in the white pages of the phone directory.

2. A political pollster wants to know how people from = different religions stand on the issue of elective abortion. The pollster breaks down the regio= n by religious affiliations (e.g., Buddhists, Catholics, Hindus, Jews, Lutherans, Methodists, Muslims, Protestants, etc.) then randomly selects members of ea= ch religion based on the percentage of people in the region who belong to that religion.

3. A researcher posts a survey on the Web for people to respond to by computer.

4. A researcher goes to a large lecture hall and asks = for volunteers to complete a survey.

5. An elementary school principle selects 10 students = at random from each of three kindergarten classes, then randomly selects two b= oys and two girls from each of the groups of 10 students to sing a song at the = next school assembly.

6. A researcher who is studying how parents cope with = the death of a child who has committed suicide contacts SOLOS, a support group = for parents who have lost children to suicide.

7. A car dealership puts all the names of its customer= s who bought cars in the last year into a hopper. A customer’s name is draw= n at random and that customer wins a GPS unit for their car.

8. A social worker who is studying homeless women in <= st1:place w:st=3D"on">Santa Monica inter= views a homeless woman, then asks her if she can refer her to another homeless woma= n. The social worker interviews the second homeless woman to whom she was referred= and asks if she, in turn, can direct her to another homeless female.

9. A company surveys all of its employees, rath= er than surveying only some.

10. For a prison lineup, a detective picks 10 arrestee= s, along with the suspect, and asks them all to line up to see if a witness can identify the perpetrator.

11. A political pollster tries to predict the outcome = of a gubernatorial election by selecting 50 precincts, at random, from within the state, then selecting 100 voters, at random from each precinct for an exit poll.

Answers: 1. Systematic sample, 2. stratified sample, 3. convenience or volunteer sample, 4. convenienc= e or volunteer sample, 5. cluster sample, 6. purposive sample, 7. simple, random sample, 8. snowball sample, 9. This is a census, not a sample (yes, I know it is a trick question, but you did learn somethi= ng, right?), 10. convenience sample, 11. cluster sample.