(Note for SOCL 3000 Spring 2018 members: I know I'm behind in posting these, and most of you will have the definitions posting already done for your next rough draft, so I'll skip that one I was planning to do, and get straight to sampling.)
The next task my students are going to have some experience working with is sampling, or how do we get people to participate, and how do we know that they isn't something unique about them?
In lots of cases, researchers can use what is called probability sampling, also known as random sampling, where everyone in the population has an equal chance of being selected. While it's easy to do in theory, it is often not that easy on carrying it out. First you need to have a list of all eligible people in the population, so you can tell how many there are and how many to select. This can be done, however for a lot of what sociologists study, it's not feasible.
Our students are (I think? We'll need to talk about it) studying Otterbein University students. We could get a list of all students, but then how are we defining students? All enrolled students? Do we include part time and full time? What about graduate and undergraduate? Students who only enrolled this semester, or do we include those taking a semester off? We could still do that, and we will see if students want to (past students will remember this and probably remember what their decision was, and why). We typically start off with "Yes, let's do that!" but then once we start down that road, students change their mind to use one of the non-probability samples, usually some combination of convenience and quota sampling.
In my own research, there is no way to use probability sampling. There is no way to get an appropriate sampling frame for either Neo-Pagans or UFO believers. So I will be using convenience and purposive sampling, which means having to go where one could find some Neo-Pagans and UFO believers. Hence, my sabbatical project going to Neo-Pagan festivals, and my eye on meeting times and dates for our local MUFON group (who takes their time updating their meeting dates on the web). In no way can either of these projects claim to be generalizable to all Neo-Pagans or all UFO believers; but that doesn't mean important information about religious socialization and impression management (the two sociological subjects of interest) can't be found.
