Doing Ethnographic Research. Kimberly Kirner

heat (such as heat stroke) in a highly urbanized location differ based on neighborhood.

      Example

      Selected sampling frame: Grocery stores

      Justification: It will be easier to capture homeless people, who are a key group affected by extreme heat, by choosing a place they are likely to go (along with people who live in houses).

      Alleviating limitations: Pair grocery stores with convenience stores and key fast-food restaurants to capture as many different people as possible. Identify a list of all care facilities and institutions in each neighborhood and e-mail their directors to find out about their plans to respond to extreme heat events.

      Non-example

      Selected sampling frame: Telephone directory

      Justification: More poor people have phones than would have health insurance. Plus, older people are more susceptible to negative health effects from extreme heat.

      Alleviating limitations: Try to reach younger people by distributing the survey at local universities and schools. Try to work with homeless shelters in the neighborhood.

      Problem

      A student is doing a senior thesis on how people’s own religious ideas are impacted by conversations with and proximity to people of other religions. The student selected New York City as the field site, because it is highly diverse. The student’s research is an exploratory study. They plan to follow up with interviews in different religious communities as a graduate student.

       (Use the worksheet at the end of the chapter to complete this problem.)

      Activity 3.7: Research Design Decisions: Sampling Plan

      Background: Now it’s time to create a sampling plan based on your research question generated in Activity 1.7.

      This activity will help you develop a sampling plan for your research question. You will first develop an optimal sampling plan, and then you will adjust this plan for your class project, grounded in your limited time and resources. You will identify how these adjustments are likely to affect the accuracy of your class project’s conclusions.

      Instructions

      Based on your research question in Activity 1.7, identify whether a probability or nonprobability sampling plan is optimal. You will then develop ideal and real sampling plans for both probability and nonprobability samples, including selecting appropriate sampling plans, identifying and critiquing recruitment for key informants, and identifying and critiquing sampling frames. You will turn in your work as a series of typed essay-style responses to the prompts.

      Common Mistakes

      Common mistakes students make when developing a sampling plan:

       Failing to think of broad trends (focusing too much on potential outliers)

       Failing to recognize potential broad patterns of difference based on gender, age, ethnicity/race, and other demographic factors

       Insufficient attention to the details of the research question

       Insufficient attention to the details of the participants needed

       Insufficient attention to the details of the researcher’s limitations

       Failing to adequately describe how key informants will be selected and why

       Failing to adequately explore how the sampling frame may exclude certain participants

       Failing to be creative about how they might gain participants and alleviate limitations

      Ask Yourself

       Do I check my work for coherence, accuracy, and completion?

      Problem 1

      Using your abstract that you wrote in Activity 1.7, identify whether your study is primarily based on cultural data or individual attribute data—and therefore whether your optimal sampling plan is going to be a nonprobability or probability sample. Justify your decision.

      Problem 2: Nonprobability Sampling Plan

      Step 1: Build optimal and adjusted nonprobability sampling plans for your research question.

      Step 2: Determine which sampling plan applies:

       If your optimal sampling plan is a nonprobability sample → use your research question to build a nonprobability sampling plan.

       If your optimal sampling plan is a probability sample → identify one or two sub-questions related to your research question that could be addressed using a nonprobability sample (i.e., that relates to cultural data).

      Step 3: Select the optimal nonprobability sampling plan (quota, purposive, convenience, or snowball). Justify your decision.

      Step 4: Describe your optimal plan for recruiting key informants: what their attributes would be and where you would recruit them. If your optimal sampling plan was a quota sample, include a sampling grid. Justify your decision.

      Step 5: Consider your time and resource constraints in this class. Adjust the nonprobability sample you will use for your class project. Justify your decision. Explain how this will limit the accuracy of your conclusions.

      Step 6: Describe how you plan to adjust recruiting key informants you will use for your class project (when you conduct interview research). Explain how this will limit the accuracy of your conclusions.

      Problem 3: Probability Sampling Plan

      Now you will build optimal and adjusted probability sampling plans for your research question.

      Step 1: Determine which of the following applies to you:

       If your optimal sampling plan is a probability sample → use your research question to build a probability sampling plan.

       If your optimal sampling plan is a nonprobability sample → identify one or two sub-questions related to your research question that could be addressed using a probability sample (i.e., that relates to individual attribute data).

      Step 2: Select the optimal probability sampling plan (simple random, stratified random, or cluster). Justify your decision.

      Step 3: Describe your optimal plan for recruiting participants. If your optimal sampling plan was a stratified random sample, identify the main demographic contrasts you think will be important (e.g., ethnicity/race or socioeconomic status). Justify your decision.

      Step 4: Consider your time and resource constraints in this class. Adjust the probability sampling plan you will use for your class project. Justify your decision. Explain how this will limit the accuracy of your conclusions.

      Step 5: Describe how you plan to adjust recruiting participants you will use for your class project (when you conduct survey research). Explain how this will limit the accuracy of your conclusions.

      Problem 4: Refinement

      In