ABSTRACT
Systematic sampling is often employed when a sample must be obtained manually and the population is relatively large. To select members using systematic random sampling, a list containing all members of the population is prepared. With systematic sampling, the researcher must carefully consider the arrangement of names on the list of population members. The chapter offers a test of some social science arguments about the nature of religious conversion and suggests alternate ways to explore this kind of phenomenon. It aims to compare Catholic Pentecostals who claim to have received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and to have reoriented their lives around this encounter with the Divine with a control sample from similar backgrounds. Converts, however, differ strikingly from the controls in reported religious practice and in availability for social influence by the Pentecostals.
