N601_Week 10 - Discussion Question: Adequacy of Sample Size
There are differing standards for sample size for quantitative and qualitative research, and there is generally a preference for larger samples in quantitative studies, whereas the reverse is true for qualitative studies. Write a response to the following questions in the forum
1) If the gold standard for a quantitative study is a large sample size, how then should we utilize the results from quantitative studies with small sample sizes?
2) Should we disregard quantitative studies with small sample sizes as unreliable? Justify your response.
3) If the samples for qualitative studies are typically smaller than those of quantitative studies, can the results of the qualitative studies be useful for informing practice and future research? Justify your response. …show more content…
The small sample sizes of the quantitative study should be utilized in such as way that random sampling is involved. According to Gray, Grove, and Sutherland (2017), randomly selecting the sample gives the entire target subjects the chance to be chosen as the representative sample population, thereby decreasing the sampling bias. It is also important to keep in mind that the best way to find out the size of the sample is through a power analysis (Gray, et al., 2017). Power analysis is a statistical method in defining the number of the participants needed in a research study (Connelly, 2008).
We should not consider quantitative studies with small sample sizes as unreliable because these research findings could be used as a pilot study that would guide the succeeding studies, just like the clinical trials in its early stage, or in atypical occasions, to conduct potential meta-analyses for some rare illnesses (Biau, et al.,