Introduction to Sampling

What you’ll learn to do: For an observational study, critique the sampling plan. Recognize implications and limitations of the plan.

Statistics seeks to use information about variables or relationships from a statistical study (sample) to draw conclusions about what is true for the entire population from which the sample was chosen. For this process to work reliably, it is essential that the sample be truly representative of the larger population. In this section, we will look at how we can create a sampling plan so that the sampling is carried out in such a way that the sample really does represent the population of interest.