Final answer:
The researcher is employing a simple random sampling design, selecting every twenty-fifth person from a master list of attendees. This method ensures that every attendee has an equal chance of being chosen.
Step-by-step explanation:
The researcher is employing a simple random sampling design. This design involves randomly selecting individuals from a master list to create a sample. In this case, the researcher selects every twenty-fifth person from the master list of attendees. This method ensures that every attendee has an equal chance of being chosen, making it a random and unbiased sample.
The researcher is probably employing a systematic sampling research design. In this approach, the researcher selects subjects using a fixed interval - in this case, every twenty-fifth person - from a larger population. This method is beneficial when dealing with large populations as it simplifies the process and still provides a representative sample, provided the list does not have any inherent pattern related to the variable of interest.Systematic sampling is often used in surveys where random sampling might be too cumbersome or impractical.
It is important to note that the start point within the first interval should be chosen randomly to maintain the randomness of the sample; in this scenario, the assumption would be that the researcher did this when selecting every twenty-fifth person from the list of inauguration attendees.By selecting a sample in this systematic way, the researcher aims to generalize findings about the larger population's attitudes towards Obama's healthcare reform policies, based on the responses of the sample. However, it is essential that the list from which the individuals are being selected is random and not arranged in a way that could introduce bias into the sample.