Group Interviews/Focus Groups (20)

Question 1

Interviews

Answer 1

A series of questions put by a researcher to a respondent
Primary Research Collection
Qualitative and Quantitative Data collection through the use of different approaches and questions.

Question 2

Group Interviews/Focus Groups

Answer 2

Where interviewer encourages participants to discuss topics and issues with one another.

Question 3

Introduction

Answer 3

Provides a quick way of interviewing a large group of people.
Discussion of a topic.
Generates qualitative data by encouraging respondents. to provide data-rich in validity.
Increase the use of sociological research.
Removes interviewer effects as more natural.

Question 4

Reliability of Group Interviews

Answer 4

Less reliable as they use open questions and may deviate from interview schedules making them hard to repeat.
May go to another topic and may not stay on track.
Data is hard to analyse or quantify a group discussion.
Hard to replicate genuine conversations or group dynamics to test if findings are reliable.

Question 5

Representativeness of Group Interviews

Answer 5

More partipants in a shorter space of time meaning a larger and representative sample. No need to interview each partipant individually.
Samples can still be small as the need to obtain and organise groups.
Groups reflect real life.

Question 6

Representativeness Example (Griffith et al)

Answer 6

16 group discussions with 89 adults.
In three locations to be representative of certain areas.
Investigated which drinks were popular with young people. What extent was drinking socially important to young people?
It is very important. Drinking to excess play an important role in group identity formation.Differences between the ways young men and women used drink. For example, for women, it is seen as ‘risky’ and ‘unfeminine’.

Question 7

Validity Strengths

Answer 7

This method generates qualitative data by building up a rapport with and between respondents and encouraging them to volunteer data rich in validity. The ‘group dynamics’ encourage one person’s answer to stimulate answers from someone else, adding to the richness of the data recorded. Group interviews are becoming increasingly common in sociological research.

Question 8

Validity Weaknesses

Answer 8

The interviewer effect can derive from the personal bias, values or judgements an interviewer brings to the interview. It can also stem from the social characteristics of the interviewer. For example, teenage girls are unlikely to open up and discuss female issues with a male interviewer. The validity of the qualitative data generated in interviews can be compromised by the interviewee feeling uncomfortable with the characteristics of the interviewer.
Less time with each partipant
One dominant personality or the loudest may take over the interview.

Question 9

Theoretical Issues

Answer 9

Interpretivists like this method.
As qual data generated.
Can follow up and gain more insight.

Question 10

Theoretical Issues Example (Ingham)

Answer 10

Working Class Boys and Educational Success
Two Catholic boys’ schools were selected for the study: one secondary school and one grammar school. The research focused on two groups of pupils/
Most of the children in the study lived in a working-class Catholic community in Belfast. 60% of children were eligible for free school meals compared with 19% of the population of Northern Ireland.
Two types of the interview were conducted in order to generate qualitative data. First, group discussions were carried out in each school with eight of the younger and eight of the older pupils. The discussions lasted an hour and the issues raised became the basis of questions used for the second stage of the research. Individual semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions that allowed students to digress were carried out with working-class boys in both schools.

Question 11

Practical Issues

Answer 11

Quick and saving time from completing interviews individually.
Need to be highly skilled to control group dynamic.
Need to establish rapport and know when to probe.

Question 12

Ethical Issues

Answer 12

The researcher must ensure they keep all details private but difficult in group interviews as participants also know who is involved and arents bound ethically.

Question 13

Ethical Issues Example (Willis)

Answer 13

Group study in his investigation of Laddish Subcultures. Interviews help group act naturally. Looked at body language and interactions.
Primary rich data
Time consuming and requires skills.