Answer:
a) The population in the case of the 400 level student is the number of students in the University of Ghana who are claustrophobic. Claustrophobia is the fear (albeit irrational) for very tight spaces.
b) I would advise AGAINST the complete enumeration of the population.
Both are data collection strategies. The objective in each case is to collect data over a specific period in order to determine the statistics of interest.
Complete enumeration is desirable or preferred where
- the objective is to get the total picture of the population that is where a total report of the sample is required
- Complete enumeration is also possible where the population is of a manageable size
Where the population is very large, complete enumeration becomes anti-productive because it becomes relatively unmanageable due to the cost in time, money and energy to be spent. In this case, sampling which at best gives a very close estimate becomes preferred.
Given that the population of the school is large and her aim is to estimate the proportion of students who claustrophobic, I would therefore recommend a survey.
c) I would recommend Stratified Sampling to the research student.
Reason: Stratified sampling is a type of sampling approach in which the total population is classified into smaller groups or strata to finalize the sampling process.
This makes her work easier because the school is already stratified into levels/ classes. If she ensured that the surveys are taken class by class, the survey will not overlap and everyone would be represented.
In contrast with simple sample random sampling, where respondents are chosen entirely by a chance, the researcher may find that they have not selected enough respondents who have claustrophobia.
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