Social Sciences Inquiry

Class exercise
Probability Sampling

1. Simple Random Sampling, Systematic Sampling, and Stratified Random Sampling

Suppose that you are interested in conducting a study of alcohol consumption (the
average number of glasses of beer consumed per student) in a campus pub. Your interest
perhaps stems from recent reports that drinking problem is increasing among college-age
youth. The design of the study calls for a measure of alcohol consumption among various
categories of students who patronize the pub. The population consists of all patrons of the
pub during the period of observation. Because all patrons must possess student
identification cards, an accurate count and list of the population are possible. The
following table describes an imaginary population of just eight students, say, all the
students who happen to be in the pub on a very slow night. (Suppose that the population
is stationary during a certain period of time frame). In addition to beer consumption,
information is given on gender and undergraduate versus graduate student status. There
are four females (F) and four males (M); four undergrads (U) and four grads (G).

Table 1.
Student Amy Ben Cora Dee Ed Fred Greg Hal
Gender F F F F M M M M
Status U G U G U G U G
Glass of beer 3 1 0 2 3 4 6 5

Q1. Calculate a population parameter.

Table 2. Means of Samples of Four Cases Drawn by Simple Random Sampling and
Stratified Random Sampling with Gender and Student Status as Stratifying Variables
Sample means Simple random Samples Samples
samples stratified by stratified by
gender student status
1.50 2 2
1.75 2
2.00 4 1 2
2.25 6 2 6
2.50 7 5 2
2.75 7 6 2
3.00 10 8 8
3.25 8 6 2
3.50 8 5 2
3.75 6 2 6
4.00 4 1 2
4.25 2
4.50 2 2
Total number of samples
Mean of sample means
Percentage of sample means between 2.5 and 3.5
Percentage of sample means between 2.0 and 4.0
Q2. Choose two statistics (what is the definition of statistic?) from Table 2 and
calculate sampling errors.

Q3. Explain how to calculate standard errors with above information (not in
formula, but in English).

Q4. How are the sampling distributions different from each other?

Q5. Based on above information, what is a major advantage of stratified random

sampling?
2. Cluster Sampling

You want a sample of individuals from Mapleville.

Step 1.
Mapleville has 54 districts. Select 6 districts using systematic sampling (choose kth
element beginning from 3) (cf. you can use random sampling instead of systematic
sampling based on a random number table).

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
49 50 51 52 53 54

1-1. List the numbers here

_________________________________________________

1-2. Sampling ratio ________ sampling interval ________

Step 2.

Divide the selected districts into blocks. Each district contains 20 blocks. The
following is example blocks of District 3.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Select 4 blocks using systematic sampling (choose nth element; random start = 4)

2.1. List the numbers here

______________________________

2.2. sampling ratio ______ and sampling interval _______

Step 3.

Divide blocks into households. Block 4 contains a mix of 5 Asian households, 20

Afro-American households, 5 Hispanic households, and 20 White households. All
Asians live on Oak Street, all Afro-Americans live on River Road, all Hispanics live
on South Avenue, and all Whites live on Greenview Drive (sorry about this
hypothetical residential segregation).
3-1. You want to have your sample exactly reflect above racial composition using
stratified systematic sampling. Select 10 households from the 50 (beginning from the
second household of each street).

1. #1 Oak Street 26. # 11 South Avenue

2. #3 Oak Street 27. # 13 South Avenue
3. #5 Oak Street 28. # 15 South Avenue
4. #7 Oak Street 29. # 17 South Avenue
5. #9 Oak Street 30. # 19 South Avenue

6. #150 River Road 31. # 250 Greenview Drive

7. #152 River Road 32. # 252 Greenview Drive
8. #154 River Road 33. # 254 Greenview Drive
9. #156 River Road 34. # 256 Greenview Drive
10. #158 River Road 35. # 258 Greenview Drive
11. #160 River Road 36. # 260 Greenview Drive
12. #162 River Road 37. # 262 Greenview Drive
13. #164 River Road 38. # 264 Greenview Drive
14. #166 River Road 39. # 266 Greenview Drive
15. #168 River Road 40. # 268 Greenview Drive
16. #170 River Road 41. # 270 Greenview Drive
17. #172 River Road 42. # 272 Greenview Drive
18. #174 River Road 43. # 274 Greenview Drive
19. #176 River Road 44. # 276 Greenview Drive
20. #178 River Road 45. # 278 Greenview Drive
21. #180 River Road 46. # 280 Greenview Drive
22. #182 River Road 47. # 282 Greenview Drive
23. #184 River Road 48. # 284 Greenview Drive
24. #186 River Road 49. # 286 Greenview Drive
25. #188 River Road 50. # 288 Greenview Drive

List the unit numbers (without street names) here.

3.2. How many households are contained in the sample after all 3 stages of
sampling?

3-3. You determined to change above original sampling procedure by sampling

more districts and blocks and less households within each block while maintaining
the total number of households you calculated in 3-2. What are the cost and benefit of
this decision?