Respond to a colleague’s post by suggesting an alternative sampling structure for their research question as well as an alternate way of selecting the sample. Please use the Learning Resources to support your answer.

Using your research problem and the refined question you developed in Week 4.

Question: How do lesbian relationship benefit from counseling?

“The U.S. Census, which provides a description of the U.S. population and a benchmark for most population sampling, does not include information on sexual orientation. With no proper description of the LGB population, researchers cannot evaluate whether a sample is representative of the population—a great handicap for determining generalizability and assessing a study’s results” (Myer & Wilson, 2009, p. 25).

Structuring is a challenging endeavor because of the dynamics involved with the population sample. The researcher must first understand how individuals identify and define lesbian. Sample framing and conceptualizing what it means to be lesbian is the compromise that must be made.

Development of two sampling structures: probability and nonprobability.

Probability sampling is a random process of selecting a population that is representative of what the researcher intends to study. Systematic random sampling would advantageous for researching lesbian experience in marital counseling. This was chosen because of the straightforwardness of design.

A nonprobability sampling structure for the same purpose is snowballing. This convenient design would be able to gain valuable in-depth knowledge because of the samples relatedness. A lesbian couple referring another lesbian couple would help the researcher gain information about their unique relationship characteristics that could have been missed by random sampling.

Explain who would be included in each sample and how each sample would be selected.

Female, same-sex, individuals seeking couples counseling would be included in the samplings. Computer generated selections would be systematically selected from counseling agencies in geographic locations with a high known lesbian population. For the nonprobability sample, the researcher would also target the same geographic location and demographics. However, active recruitment from lesbian couples already involved in counseling would be the manner in which the sampling would be selected.

Be specific about the sampling structures you chose, evaluating both strengths and limitations of each.

The strength of probability sampling is the value of external validity and generalizability of the population it aims to study. This is because that every individual has an equal likelihood of being chosen. Additionally, “they control for sampling bias, by making it impossible for the researcher to inadvertently distort the sample in some systematic way (Yedgis et al, 2018, p. 210). The great limitation to random sampling is the cost and availability of cases. Seeking representation of minority groups in the general population across the U.S. would daunting and expensive.

The strength of nonprobability sampling is it is less regimented and random sampling structures. “Nonprobability samples are a good alternative when estimating population prevalence is not a research focus” (Myer & Wilson, 2009, p. 25). In the snowballing technique, the researcher gains access to hidden populations by peer-driven recruitment (Myer & Wilson, 2009). However, a drawback to nonprobability sampling is that the researcher may miss individuals from the desired population to be studied. This inability to adjust for exclusion or over-representation of the sample would potentially bias the results (Yedgis et al., 2018).

References

Myer, I. H. & Wilson, P. A. (2009). Sampling lesbian, gay, and bi-sexual populations. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 56(1), 23-31. doi: 10.1037/a001487

Yegidis, B. L., Weinbach, R. W., & Myers, L. L. (2018). Research Methods for Social Workers (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Allyn & Bacon.

Use APA format and 1 peer reviewed reference

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