How Can Samples Describe Populations?

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Introduction

A facet of modern society is the vast amount of information and knowledge that is available, communicated and accumulated. Adding to this knowledge base through research necessitates a need to organise, simplify and summarise the information, if it is to be useful.

The scientist's goal in general is to investigate and describe the implications of findings of a given problem or hypothesis. When phenomena are not of natural sciences but of a sociological character, there is debate on what serves as validation of hypothesis. It is therefore imperative for any investigation into social phenomena to consider the research methodologies used to explore subject matters and the ramifications that the subsequent results imply.

Social sciences concentrate on the interaction of people and communities in relation to the infrastructure and environment that affects them. The main information seeking tools that are used in the field of study are surveys/questionnaires and interviews. The broad scope of social sciences means that the investigation could involve a very large, scaling down to a very few, number of subjects. This is obviously dependant upon the particular study. What is common to all cases though is the need for the collected data to