A graduate student has a close friend who is recovering from colon cancer and has a permanent colostomy

Question

For her master's thesis, the student decides to conduct qualitative research on adjustment to living with a permanent colostomy after colon cancer resection. She asks her friend if she has any idea of how to recruit participants for the research. Her friend tells her about a colon cancer support group to which she belongs and volunteers to bring a printout of the research study's purpose and general description to the next support group meeting. If the researcher acquires all of her participants in this way, what is the method of sampling used?
a. Snowball sampling
b. Cluster sampling
c. Purposive sampling
d. Simple random sampling

Answer 1

ANS: A
Network sampling, sometimes referred to as snowballing, holds promise for locating samples difficult or impossible to obtain in other ways or who had not been previously identified for study. Network sampling takes advantage of social networks and the fact that friends tend to have characteristics in common. When the researcher has found a few subjects with the necessary criteria, he or she asks their assistance in getting in touch with others with similar characteristics. The first few subjects are often obtained through a convenience sampling method, and the sample size is expanded using network sampling. In cluster sampling, the researcher develops a sampling frame that includes a list of all the states, cities, institutions, or organizations with which elements of the identified population would be linked. States, cities, institutions, or organizations are selected randomly as units from which to obtain elements for the sample. In purposive sampling, sometimes referred to as purposeful, judgmental, or selective sampling, the researcher consciously selects certain participants, elements, events, or incidents to include in the study.