Stop Apologizing for Your Samples, Start Embracing Them

Details

• Personal Author:
  Barnes-Farrell JL ; Dalal DK ; Zhu X
• Description:
  Landers and Behrend (2015) call for editors and reviewers to resist using heuristics when evaluating samples in research as well as for researchers to cautiously consider choosing the samples appropriate for their research questions. Whereas we fully agree with the former conclusion, we believe the latter can be extended even further to encourage researchers to embrace the strengths of their samples for understanding their research rather than simply defending their samples. We believe that samples are not inherently better or worse but rather better suited for different research objectives. In this commentary, we identify three continua on which research goals can differ to demonstrate that all samples can inform science. Depending on the position of one's research on these continua, different samples exhibit different strengths; the continua described below can be used to anchor one's sample to demonstrate how it can benefit, rather than limit, research conclusions. As discussed in the focal article, researchers will often apologize for their convenience samples as one of a litany of limitations; we hope that researchers will move sampling issues out of the limitations section and into the main discussion. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Decision Making Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Data Processing Decision Making Occupational Psychology Psychological Responses Research Productivity
• ISSN:
  1754-9426
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Connecticut ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  228-232
• Volume:
  8
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20063996
• Citation:
  Ind Organ Psychol 2015 Jun; 8(2):228-232
• Contact Point Address:
  Xiaoyuan (Susan) Zhu, Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road, Unit 1020, Storrs, CT 06269-1020
• Email:
  xiaoyuan.zhu@uconn.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• Performing Organization:
  University of Connecticut Storrs
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Industrial and Organizational Psychology
• End Date:
  20250630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2f6bfbbbb9ce3e2c947ba0491aa0f21aa9dc89e8354da81dbcc52a3e97d790c4216fea7e36d6fe1e83aeb5a093c32a2e7c3667540a600550aedbd4be2441e2cd
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/222525/cdc_222525_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 112.61 KB ]