----- Forwarded message from Susanne Muigg -----
now I'm about to finish my thesis, but still looking for some literature
about the advantages and disadvantages of a (student) convenience sample,
which I had used. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything, even if I've done
quite an extensive literature search in all big Austrian university
libraries, in international databanks and via Internet.
----- End of forwarded message from Susanne Muigg -----
There are NO STATISTICAL advantages and hence no statistical
literature. We try to take random samples because then the laws of
probability can be applied to get confidence intervals and hypothesis
tests. If you don't take random samples, there is no reason to think
those techniques apply, or at least considerable question as to what
they mean (if anything). But since convenience is not a mathematical
concept, there is no theory, and hence no formulas, and no statistical
literature, on what happens when you take convenience samples. The
safe approach is to just describe your sample as if it were the
population of interest, and confine comments about broader groups to
verbal speculation. If that is too bald for your committee, you may
need to indulge in some creative obfuscation, but again -- no
STATISTICAL literature on that topic either!-)
_
| | Robert W. Hayden
| | Work: Department of Mathematics
/ | Plymouth State College MSC#29
| | Plymouth, New Hampshire 03264 USA
| * | fax (603) 535-2943
/ | Home: 82 River Street (use this in the summer)
| ) Ashland, NH 03217
L_____/ (603) 968-9914 (use this year-round)
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