Sampling Strategy and Size in Post-traumatic Stress Disorders Research - Essay Example

? Sampling strategy and size in post-traumatic stress disorders Research affiliation Qualitative sampling playsan essential role in medical health care research and this has resulted into its widespread use by clinicians and health care academicians. Qualitative research approaches have significant deviation from hypothetical research approaches and one of the main variations arises from the sampling methods used. Significant number of research literatures has not covered sampling methods for qualitative research work especially in the health care sector. This paper thus seeks to identify the benefits of different sampling methods as used in sampling methods for the development of career and motivation research plan. This research involves patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, and this essay seeks to identify the sampling strategy and sampling size that suits this research work. Qualitative research processes seek to provide solutions to different questions that forms part of the research exercise, as it uses predetermined steps and procedures in providing the solutions to the questions raised. Providing answers to the questions that form part of the research processes is accomplished through the collection of evidence to produce findings that were not initially determined. As a method that is employed to provide clear illustrations and understanding of the psychosocial issues, qualitative research approach is preferred in studies meant to understand different conditions in post-traumatic stress disorders (Collins, Onwuegbuzie & Jiao, 2006). Posttraumatic stress disorder is a psychological and mental condition that arises after exposure to s terrifying event such as an accident, witnessed murder and mass deaths among others. It is characterized by consistent flashbacks, which increases the stress and depression of the patients; although, nightmares and extreme anxious situations are also visibly present in PTSD patients. Proper research on the prevalence, conditions and mitigation measures for patients suffering from posttraumatic stress disorders is essential. Previous studies on both health care and psychological topics of this magnitude have been conducted using qualitative approaches. The sampling technique employed significantly affects the integrity, accuracy and cost of the entire research process (Kandace & landreneau, 2005). A number of research activities have been conducted to identify different aspects of posttraumatic stress disorder and these studies have adopted different sampling strategies and sizes. Research in this area helps in the identification of different approaches to adopt on PTSD patients including the approaches of psychotherapy. Psychotherapy involves talking and verbal counseling to enable the stress patients to share their experience and thus help them identify approaches to adopt in mitigating the condition. Cognitive behavioral therapies are some of the approaches used to identify the how to counter the impacts of posttraumatic stress (Kidd, 2002). Due to the constraints of conducting a research exercise on the entire population, sampling methods are used to identify the population that will form the study. This is an important tenet in qualitative research processes as it leads to the identification of the study population, which should be representative of the general population of study. Sampling is defined as the process of selecting the part of the general population in a defined area of study that shall form part of a research process in a representative manner. Sampling strategies are plans that are identified to enable a research draw the best representation from a population from which his/her study shall be based. Qualitative research seeks to adopt a sampling strategy that represents the entire population in the best way possible while eliminating the possibility of biases. A sample chosen should thus be able to represent the key and essential characteristics of the general population (Collins, Onwuegbuzie & Jiao, 2006). Different sampling strategies exist that have been extensively employed in qualitative research especially in the health care sector. For the purpose of studying post traumatic stress disorders, there are a number of sampling methods which can be employed but this paper will explain in details the best sampling method for this kind of study. Purposive sampling is a common sampling strategy that is used in research studies conducted with the health sector. It is identified based on theoretical saturation points at which further collection of data has no significant changes in the research processes. Purposive sampling is employed in situations where the data review and ultimate analysis of the data collected is necessary (Onwuegbuzie & Leech 2007). Quota sampling is the second sampling strategy used in qualitative research processes and it seeks to identify the characteristics necessary for the inclusion of participants into the sample population. These special characteristics may include age of the participants, sex, health status and marital status among others. This method allows researchers to focus on the participants that possess the require qualities or the examined behaviors (Parker, 2005). Concerning a career and work motivation research on PTSD sufferers, quota sampling comes out as the best sampling method that can enable the researcher to identify and meet the needs of the research processes. Quota sampling enables the researcher to fragment and randomly divide the study population into mutually exclusive groups with special features that is usually under study. It is considered as a non-probability sampling method that first identifies the presence of a certain condition like post traumatic stress disorder in the study population before choosing the study population (Howitt, 2010). Thus, from the objectives of this study it is evident that quota-sampling strategy will be more beneficial and provide exclusive research results. It has the benefits of being time friendly and in this situation where there is no need for sampling frame. As a research for graduate research projects, financial constraints exist thus making it necessary to adopt a sampling method that identifies the study subjects directly. As a process of stratification of the study population, the identification of the shared qualities, in this situation the presence of posttraumatic stress disorders, ease the entire research process (Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2007). Considering the demographic variables analyzed in this situation being the presence of the health conditions, the sampling method is convenient as it eliminates the need for insurance of the study sample. The sample members are recruited based on their arrival for counseling at the sample site and assigned special demographic identities (Howitt, 2010). Sample sizes influences the success of any research process for it defines the cost of the study, the time taken and the development of proper research variables. Sample size is the statistical number of study population that is chosen to represent the entire population in a specific study. Despite the perception that the sample size has insignificant impact on the research results, sample size must be well determined for the study to provide the needed results. Thus, the sample should not be too small or too large to create redundant conclusions; however, judgment and experience is important in the determination of the best sample size in qualitative research processes (Kidd, 2002). In order to avoid the occurrence of both type 1 and type 2 errors in this research, an appropriate sample size that can be adequately applied in quota sampling must be selected. Type one errors creates a false positive while type 2 creates a false negative, which provides a wrong basis upon which conclusive remarks will be made. Studies on posttraumatic stress disorder are considered as primary care research activities that require the identification of specific conditions within the sample population. According to the British journal of general practice, the calculation of power for every test under analysis in qualitative research defines the sample size (Kienzler & Pedersen, 2007). Previous research shows that the use of high samples produces significant high powers. Large number of samples to increase the power of the results has been extensively applied in different psychological and primary health care research activities. To achieve significant results on the impacts of posttraumatic stress disorders, it is essential to use a large sample size in relation to the general size of the study population (Kandace & landreneau, 2005). This reduces the development of type 1 and type 2 errors in situations where the study seeks to test a hypothesis. Quota sampling also adopts different approaches in sample size determination including the use of monadic testing. In this situation, a sample size of 15o respondents in a ration proportional to the total sample population is used irrespective of the sub-groups. The determination of sample size using this approach is important due to ability to reweight the sample size with consideration on other characteristics associated with posttraumatic stress disorders (Kienzler & Pedersen, 2007). References Kienzler, H. & Pedersen, D. (2007). Using qualitative and quantitative research methods in the study of mental and trauma related disorders. New York: McGill university research center. Kandace, J. & landreneau, R. (2005). Sampling strategies. Walnut Creek, CA: The organization for transplant professionals. Kidd, S. (2002). The role of qualitative research in psychological journals. Psychological methods, 7(1), 126-138. Howitt, D. (2010). Introduction to qualitative methods in psychology. Edinburgh gate: Pearson education limited. Parker, I. ( 2005). Qualitative Psychology: Introducing radical research. Buckingham: Open University Press. Onwuegbuzie, A & Leech, N. (2007). Sampling designs in qualitative research: making the sampling process more public. The qualitative report, 12(2), 238-254. Collins, T., Onwuegbuzie, A. & Jiao, G. (2006). Prevalence of mixed methods sampling designs in social science research. Evaluation and Research in Education, 19, 83-101. Read More