week 2 discussion (method in  psych  
inquiry

Developing a research hypothesis and selecting participants to test your research hypothesis are critical components of the foundation for conducting a study. As you have read in your course text, it often is not possible to utilize an entire population of interest. Therefore, you may need to develop your conclusion based on a sample of people from a population. You may question, “How do I ensure that a sample best represents the population?” The assigned pages from Chapter 6 walk you through the critical components of sampling, and the ability to generalize findings of research studies.

There are two primary types of sampling methods: probability and non-probability. For each of these methods there are several kinds of sampling techniques to choose from. One factor pertaining to your effectiveness as a researcher in psychology will depend on your ability to select an appropriate sampling method and corresponding technique.

For this Discussion, you analyze sampling methods and techniques for studies that have been conducted and recommend alternative sampling techniques.

To prepare:

• Read Chapter 2 of your course text.
• Read the assigned pages from Chapter 6 of your course text.
• Go to the Psychology Topics Web page on http://www.apa.org/topics/ the APA website. Choose one topic that interests you and examine which types of research designs and sampling methods would most likely be utilized for the particular area of study.
• If your last name begins with the following letter:
  • A–L, then you will be responsible for locating a journal article in your topic area of interest that has utilized a probability method and corresponding technique (e.g., simple random sampling, systematic random sampling, stratified sampling, cluster sampling, etc.) in a research study.
  • M–Z, then you will be responsible for locating a journal article in your topic area of interest that has utilized a nonprobability method and corresponding technique (e.g., snowball sampling, convenience sampling, etc.) in a research study.
• Access the Walden Library and locate a journal article for your selected topic that contains an actual research study that collected and analyzed data.Note: You will need to cite and provide a reference for your source.

Note: Most research studies that you come across will not overtly identify the particular sampling method and technique utilized for recruiting participants. In such cases, it will be up to you to determine this. Your best source of information for determining which sampling procedure was used will be to carefully read how the participants were recruited for the study.

With these thoughts in mind:

Post by Day 3:

1. A brief description (not more than 150 words) of your topic and the research article that you selected—including background information, the design, results, and conclusion.
2. Explain the type of sampling method and the technique that was utilized.
3. How could the researcher(s) investigate the same topic by implementing a different sampling technique?
4. How would the participants be recruited using this new sampling technique?

Important: In the subject line of your post add the name of the method you are posting about (i.e., Probability or Nonprobability) so that your colleagues will be able to determine which posts they are to respond to (please see the Post by Day 6 directions below).

Note: Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references to the Learning

MY LAST STARTS WITH AN A.