When carrying out social researches the correct scoping of sample is extremely important. All your works will be fruitless if you interview an insufficient number of people. If sample too big, then you spend spare cash for a research.
Instruction
1. Define the purposes of the forthcoming research. The volume of sample is in many respects caused by those tasks which face the researcher. As a rule, at this stage also degree of accuracy which needs to be received finally is defined. So, the it is lower, the smaller number of respondents needs to be interviewed.
2. Give characteristic to the studied object. Besides degree of accuracy of results of a research, the large role is played by uniformity of sample. So, at some research practically all representatives of the audience interesting you will give similar answers, but the population is more various, the more volume there has to be a sample.
3. Determine population volume. It represents all number of people whose opinion interests you. However you will not be able to interview, for example, 18 years are more senior than all women. Therefore it is necessary to make sample – to interview only some representatives of this group who would express opinion and the interests of all set. According to various sociologists, the sample has to be carried out in case the volume of population exceeds 50-500 people.
4. Make sample not less than of 500 people in case the volume of population does not exceed 5 thousand people. Such number of respondents will be optimum both in terms of representativeness, and in terms of cost intensity.
5. Interview 10% of representatives of population in case its volume more than 5 thousand people. However consider that the sample should not consist more than of 2.5 thousand people, otherwise costs of a research will not be fully justified.
6. If you need to conduct trial survey, then the volume of sample can be 100-250 people depending on specifics of researches.