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Brief introduction to snowball technique

Research Objectives

For the first time I have heard about snowball sampling technique. Although I know about purposeful sampling technique, I don’t know about the snowball sampling. What exactly is this sampling technique and why is it used?

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By Jyotsnamayee Nayak Answered 5 years ago

Snowball sampling is a technique where researchers recruit other participants for a test or study. It is normally used when potential participants are hard to find. This is a non-probability sampling method and doesn’t have the probability involved, rather the researchers use their judgment to choose participants. Snowball sampling contains two steps: 1. Identification of potential subjects in the population. 2. Asking those subjects to recruit other participants.

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By Pragya Answered 5 years ago

Snowball is a very popular sampling technique. This is because, it enables for studies to take place even when there is a lack of participants. It also helps you determine characteristics about a population that you were unaware of.

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By Arjun Patel Answered 5 years ago

Sampling method is used if the samples for the study are rare or are limited to a small subgroup of the population. This method works like chain referral. I.e. after observing the initial subject, the researcher takes help from the subject to identify people with a similar characteristics/ interest. However, by using this method, based on the obtained sample it is nearly impossible to figure out the sampling error or make an inference about populations.

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