SOC 232 Lecture Notes - Focus Group, Symbolic Interactionism, Social Status
Document Summary
May bring out a wide variety of perspectives on an issue. Brings out why people feel the way they do. Brings out how individuals collectively make decisions and interpretations. Challenging by other interviewees may result in more realistic accounts of. How many groups? symbolic interactionism) what people believe. Depends on the topic and the goals of the research. Smaller group if the topics are controversial, complex, emotional. Natural groups: people who already know each other or already have had some interaction. May be appropriate, depending on the goals of the research. Useful if the research is actually about how social interaction occurs. Pre-existing styles of interaction or status hierarchies may affect the. The group may have taken-for-granted assumptions that are not challenged. Usually a small number of general questions is used. Amount of intervention taken by the moderator depends on the topic of the how much knowledge the participants have; the goals of the research.
