Main Post: Probability sampling represents the best strategy for selecting research participants.

Why Probability Sampling is the Best Strategy

Probability sampling is viewed as the best method for selecting participants in a research study because it offers the knowledge that the population of interest has a known non-zero chance of being selected. It also offers representativeness, which means more naturally generalizable research findings (Creswell & Creswell, 2022). Lastly, eliminating selection bias contributes to or increases the external validity of the experiment, or how well the research results would be likely to reflect the true reality of the entire population of interest. An example could be a study of the mental health of college students in the US. Using simple random sampling, every college student in the national database would have the same likelihood of selection at a given time. Thus, researchers could generalize to all the college students in the US with maximum confidence. This is not likely if non-probability sampling methods, such as a convenience population of college students would be sampling textured populations beyond themselves, such as students from one university or students from the same region of the county. Babbie (2017) also argued that probability sampling is important in quantitative research, serving as a foundation for statistical inference and hypothesis testing, as it provides a high level of confidence that the study's research outcome findings are accurate and reliable.

Data Collection Method: Surveys

A survey is a way to collect data from and about people (Burkholder et al., 2020). Surveys have some strengths as well as weaknesses. One strength is that surveys are an effective way to collect data from large groups of people and in a short amount of time. Surveys can be distributed widely either online or in hard copy. Surveys can also cover a wide range of topics (Babbie, 2017; Burkholder et al., 2020). A considerable weakness of surveys lies in response bias as respondents may select socially desirable answers or misinterpret the questions, which may affect data quality (Burkholder et al., 2020).

Ethical Issue and Strategy

A common ethical challenge associated with surveys is the potential for people to not provide informed consent, especially in anonymous or online surveys where the participant may not fully understand their rights and how their data will be used (Nayak & Narayan, 2019). In these cases, researchers should provide participants a separate informed consent statement as a part of the survey tool with a meeting of the researcher and participant described. The informed consent statement may contain an overview of the purpose, procedures, potential risks, potential benefits, a reminder that participation is voluntary, and more to allow for an informed and voluntary decision (Burkholder et al., 2020).

Relationship Between Measurement Reliability and Validity

Consistency of a measurement is referred to as reliability; validity means the instrument is actually measuring what it is supposed to be (Babbie, 2017; Burkholder et al., 2020). Reliability and validity are connected, but different: A tool can be reliable but not valid, but cannot be valid without being reliable (Babbie, 2017; Burkholder et al., 2020). An example from the field of criminal justice discipline relates to a survey developed to measure attitudes toward the death penalty. The survey, administered to a similar group in a similar environment, produces similar results (high reliability), but if the questions on the survey are ambiguous or culturally biased, then the survey cannot really measure public attitudes (low validity). Conversely, an accurately valid survey utilizing well-defined, culturally specific items could have low reliability, when a misworded item confused the respondent or when the administration process had inconsistent steps. In short, reliability is a necessary, but not sufficient for validity, since a tool can be reliable even if not valid, and a valid tool requires reliably consistent measures to be trustworthy.

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Respond to a classmate who was assigned the opposite position by further supporting or respectfully countering his or her position.

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