Questions Posed to George Veletsianos: Do you find that using snowball sampling allows for a varied enough sample group for the types of research you are doing? When is it more or less appropriate to implement this as a way of finding participants?
Snowball sampling, when used in a research context, can be defined as “identifying participants, than asking those individuals to help you recruit more participants” (Veletsianos, 2019, 00:08). This type of sampling used in research can be useful because often times it can be difficult to find specific individuals you want for your research, particularly if they have very detailed characteristics you require for your study sample. For instance, there may not be many of the particular individuals you want; therefore, by recruiting others you increase your chances of getting your required sample. Individuals within your sample can help lead you to others like them, with similar characteristics you require. Veletsianos (2019), suggests that the question of whether a sample is varied enough is the wrong one…one needs to focus on the criteria of sample required for the research to determine if snowball sampling is appropriate. Specifically, “variation is not as important as identifying the characteristics” (Veletsianos, 2019, 01:35). I think it is important to note that Veletsianos first and foremost analyzed the question posed to him as opposed to trying to answer the question right away. If there is one thing I have learned in this course, LRNT522, it is that the research question posed, or any question for that matter, is a critical foundation which helps to underpin one’s research. Researchers need to be able to create the right question within the right context, which then enables good research to be produced.
Reference:
Veletsianos, G. (Producer). (2019, August 16). Question response to research (audio podcast). Retrieved from https://www.dropbox.com/s/gobpunyo0dr7jvn/q2.mp3?dl=0
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