ABSTRACT

Many of us have been taught that in order to have an acceptable sample for a research project, we should select people at random from the population. Randomness means that every person in the population of interest has an equal chance of being selected for inclusion in the study. A randomly selected sample serves an important purpose: it increases the likelihood that the sample accurately represents the population from which it was selected, allowing for results of the study to be generalized to the larger population. However, traditional quantitative researchers concerned with complex human phenomena rarely have the opportunity to select a truly random sample and often settle for approximations of randomness.