This video we're going to be talking about research samples. Now all research begins with a certain population in mind and the population is a large set of individuals that the researcher is trying to understand. So this is usually pretty broad. This could be like, you know, adolescents in the United States or mothers in Germany. So we have a nice broad population.
And then from there researchers obtain a sample. So a sample is the group selected from the population to actually participate in the research study. So the population is every single individual who is of interest to you and the sample is the group taken from the population to do research on. Now in psychology we have two main types of research samples. We have representative samples, which is a group of individuals that matches the population on important characteristics.
So for example if your population has a certain, you know, racial, ethnic, gender, age breakdown then your sample would have the same or very very similar racial, ethnic, gender, age breakdown. The idea here being that the sample represents the population in a very accurate way. Now these are often the result of something called random sampling. So random sampling is a sampling technique where every single member of the population has an equal chance of being selected for the research. So if this is our entire population we're going to just be randomly selecting people and calling them up and be, you know, saying, hey can you participate in our study?
So if you have ever received a phone call that's just like, hi, I'm with the National Research blah blah blah, you have been randomly sampled. Now representative samples are considered kind of like a scientific gold standard. We obviously want our sample to match our population as accurately as possible. However, they can be a little bit less efficient and, like, harder to obtain because how often do you get a random phone call and actually answer it? Probably not super often.
Right? People don't really like being randomly sampled so these are a bit more difficult to obtain usually, which brings us to our convenience samples. So a convenience sample is a non-random sample where participants are selected based on their willingness, ability, or motivation to participate in the research. So maybe this is, you know, maybe you're selecting people who are just physically closer to your laboratory, so it's just easier to get them to come into your lab. Maybe these are people who enjoy being participants and are actively seeking out research to engage in.
Whatever it is, the idea here is that it is more convenient for the researcher to obtain this sample and that every single person or every single member of the population did not have an equal chance of participating in this study is kind of the idea. Now, convenience samples are technically less scientifically rigorous. However, they are very, very common in psychological research, mainly just for practical and financial purposes. You know, obviously, we need to get our samples. We need to get people into our lab. We need people who are willing to participate in the research, willing to, you know, listen to the instructions and really try their best on all of our tasks or whatever we're doing with them.
And we have to be able to get research done in order for it to be financially efficient to, you know, keep funding more research. And so convenience samples are less scientifically rigorous but much easier to do, better for practical and financial purposes. Representative samples are more scientifically rigorous but can be a little bit harder to obtain. Alright. Those are research samples and I'll see you guys in the next one.
Bye bye.