Sampling Discussion

I would consider myself part of the population that the researcher wants to study - college students in general. I am not yet part of the actual sample that the researcher selects for the study itself.

To ensure representativeness, the researcher should use random sampling to select participants from the overall college student population (Pruett & Winker, 2008). This gives every student an "equal chance" of being chosen. The researcher should recruit a sufficiently large sample to capture diversity in terms of demographics like age, race, major, etc. Matching the sample to known demographics of the college population will help.

The researcher would likely want to generalize findings to the broader population of all college students, not just at one school. Results could potentially apply to young adults in the college age range more widely too.

Inclusion criteria could be currently enrolled as a full-time student, between ages 18-25, registered for at least 12 course credits. Exclusion criteria: students enrolled part-time, non-traditional adult learners, students under 18 or over 25, those registered for fewer than 12 credits.

In order to reduce sampling error, a researcher must have a large sample that accurately reflects the target population. To avoid being selected, random sampling should be used to minimize systematic bias. As follows, it is important for the researcher not to over or underrepresent certain demographic characters such as gender, race, age, or major (Kesemen et al., 2021). One way of minimizing response bias could be through anonymous surveys where students are comfortable enough to provide honest answers. Clear survey questions can help mitigate measurement bias in the interpretation of responses.

As an interested party, I could bring in at least one female college student's perspective. My own experiences with social support may vary greatly from those of other people. A large, diverse sample would provide a comprehensive understanding. It could make me more aware of my own social network when I participate in the study. If this research appears ethical in my opinion, then I am fine with becoming a volunteer participant and helping students benefit from its findings.

References

Kesemen, O., Tiryaki, B. K., Tezel, ., zkul, E., & Naz, E. (2021). Random sampling with fuzzy replacement.Expert Systems with Applications,185, 115602. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2021.115602

Pruett, C. L., & Winker, K. (2008). The effects of sample size on population genetic diversity estimates in song sparrows Melospiza melodia.Journal of Avian Biology,39(2), 252-256. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0908-8857.2008.04094.x

assignment : create 5 questions from discussion above