Question

Samantha is conducting a survey to evaluate the eating habits of customers at fast-food restaurants. She selects the first 50 customers during the day as her participants. Samantha is using a sample that is:

A) Random
B) Stratified
C) Systematic
D) Convenience

Answer 1

Samantha is using a convenience sampling method for her survey, which is non-random and based on the ease of accessing participants.

Step-by-step explanation:

Samantha is employing a non-random sampling technique in her survey of the eating habits of customers at fast-food restaurants. By selecting the first 50 customers during the day as her participants, she is using a convenience sample. This approach is deemed non-random because it does not give each individual in the population an equal chance of being included in the sample; rather, it relies on ease of access to participants.

In comparison, during the survey in the department store, the manager used a different technique to measure employee satisfaction. By choosing four departments at random and conducting interviews with all the employees in those departments, the manager used a cluster sampling method, which is a type of random sampling that involves selecting entire groups, or clusters, from the population where each cluster is a mini-representation of the population.

Another example of a sampling method is when a health club decides to survey every tenth customer on a specified day, which is a systematic sampling method. This involves selecting members at regular intervals from the ordered list of all members.