Representative Samples, Random Sampling

Abstract

In the social sciences literature the expressions ‘random sample’ and ‘representative sample’ are often used improperly and sometimes even interchangeably by students who seem to think that sample is representative in so far, and because, it is random. In this essay I shall discuss the proper use of ‘random’, ‘representative’ and related terms, and I shall argue that no logic nexus exists between the two concepts, nor does any causal relationship between the two sets of phenomena. The analysis begins with the term that raises the most annoying problems, and accordingly is less explored in the literature, viz, ‘representativeness’.