LibGuides: Research Methods in Recreation and Leisure Studies: Selecting a Sample

Pros and Cons of Sample Size

Studying a representative sample of your population makes your research more manageable. Studying an entire population is not realistic.

Your sample will come from your subject population. Choosing a larger or smaller sample size may affect the outcome of your project.

	Larger	Smaller
Pros (Positives)	more accurate more representative	easier to manage collection and analysis of data easy to gather subjects may allow for more involved data collection
Cons (Negatives)	may be more difficult to manage collection and analysis of data may not be achievable/may not result in response rate	less accurate less representative

Larger

Smaller

Pros (Positives)

more accurate

more representative

easier to manage collection and analysis of data

easy to gather subjects

may allow for more involved data collection

Cons (Negatives)

may be more difficult to manage collection and analysis of data

may not be achievable/may not result in response rate

less accurate

less representative

Methods of Sampling

The link below explains (with examples) different ways of sampling a selected population. It is important that your sample is representative, meaning it accurately portrays the population that you are studying. If your sample does not accurately and adequately represent your studied population, the conclusions that you draw about the population may be biased and/or inaccurate.

Sampling Techniques
Singh, Seema. (2018 July 26) Sampling Techniques. Retrieved from: https://towardsdatascience.com/sampling-techniques-a4e34111d808.

How to Calculate Sample Size

[StatisticsFun]. (2009, February 5). How to Calculate Sample Size [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2dKK1xicgs&feature=youtu.be

Learn to cite a YouTube Video!

The video above helps you determine your optimal sample size using a mathematical formula. Sometimes, the ideal sample size is not achievable for practical reasons, but the formula above may be useful for some studies.