One weakness of a systematic sample is that:
A) it is difficult to separate the population into strata.
B) geographic areas may not be known.
C) taking the sample requires judgment on the part of the researcher.
D) the data may exhibit a pattern of periodicity.
E) the observations are chosen because they are not typical of the population.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

A weakness of a systematic sample is that it may exhibit a pattern of periodicity, meaning that certain outcomes may be overrepresented or underrepresented in the sample due to the sampling interval coinciding with a pattern in the population. For example, if a systematic sample is taken every 10th person in a population of employees, and the employees are arranged alphabetically by last name, the sample may inadvertently include only employees with last names that start with certain letters. This can result in bias and affect the generalizability of the findings to the population as a whole.

One Weakness of a Systematic Sample Is That