Jake's research methods instructor asks him to conduct a survey on "cheating" with a random sample of graduate students. To save time, he goes to the cafeteria and distributes the survey questionnaires among the students present there. In this case, the sampling method used by Jake is called _____ sampling.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The sampling method used by Jake is haphazard (also known as convenience) sampling, in which subjects are chosen because they are easily available or accessible. It is not a representative sample of the graduate student population and may be subject to bias. Simple random sampling would have been a better option to achieve a representative sample. Cluster sampling involves dividing the population into clusters and randomly choosing some of those clusters to sample from, which was not done here. Stratified random sampling involves dividing the population into groups (strata) based on certain characteristics and then randomly selecting participants from each group, which was also not done here.

Jake's Research Methods Instructor Asks Him to Conduct a Survey