SOCECOL 194W Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Street Children, Focus Group
Document Summary
Large enough to generate rich discussion, small enough to not leave some participants out. They are often used to produce exploratory data. In other words: they facilitate discovery when prior research is limited (street children; infanticide). They determine key issues, ideas or concerns on topic. The group context (non-replicable happening): participants interact with interviewer and each other. They can agree, disagree, elaborate, clarify, query, expplain. The dynamic within the group (group effect): a dynamic discussion emerges and one participant"s responses can influence future responses. Like in-depth interviews, foucs groups examine participants" perceptions (standpoints), motives (strategies), and experience (stories) Participants articulate their perceptions, motives, and experiences in front of others. Allows exploration of how others respond to participants" articulation. Examine how articulations evolve and develop in discussion. Segmentation (stratify based on traits in which you expect to find a difference: gender, age, length of commute)
