420 : How to ensure a statistically significant sample

[fayemachine]

Please help!!!

How to ensure a statistically significant sample.

What does this mean??????????

Faye.

[SomeoneSpecial]

how do you ensure your research is reliable enough to take results from?

basically to ensure this you would say how the reashurch is collected fairly-if a questionnair then the questions must be unbias, if its a recording of how much a baby drinks on average each day then it must be recorded over a number of days then calculated to get it more accurate, and youd say that a large amount of data needs to be collected and recorded.

hope this helps

[fayemachine]

Thanks that great help.

[Ruthierhyme]

This may also involve numbers - the amount participating in the task/sample. To help ensure a good cross section of results/input is obtained / data collected.

As an obscure example if you wanted to find out which vegetables rabbits liked the most an unlikely group to consider if you wanted to produce a statistically significant sample would be cat or goldfish owners.

Wikipedia article - Statistical significance

Obtaining a statistically significant sample will give weight to an argument, area of reasearch - negatively or positively. Help prove/disprove issues of contention, agreement, help others to understand the significance of the data collected and any effect on policy, procedure, opinion, reputation...

Using the question in mind - or that needs to be answered / reasearched look at who you would invite to participate and why.

Mothers
Fathers
Step Parents
Siblings
Aunts, Uncles and extended family
Professionals
Age related groups

Asking unrelated groups to take part may have an impact on the results, make them less reliable or irrelevant. However including outside participants may also open up opportunities that weren't thought of originally and provide a contrast ..

Hth, an older post reply sorry but just came across the wikipedia article
xx