Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Dr Mark Pope from Imperial College and in this presentation I'm going to talk about focus groups and in-depth interviews. These methods are popular in many professional fields. For our purposes though, as academics, they can be really effective in providing valid and detailed data on people's understanding of issues, and this can be crucial in helping us answer our research questions. In this presentation, we'll consider the definition and aims of in-depth interviews and focus groups, the types of data and information that they can yield, what kinds of research questions they can help answer, and some of the difficulties with these methods as well. We'll also consider how participants and interviewees can be recruited, and we'll provide a step-by-step guide before moving into the conclusion. An interview is a conversation where one person elicits information from another, usually from an individual or a small number of individuals. Interviews can have varying amounts of structure ranging from those based on a strict set of questions to very unstructured, improvised discussions. In this presentation, we'll be focusing largely on in-depth interviews. An in-depth interview is likely to be less structured and more exploratory, with greater probing on issues that are addressed in the conversation. In-depth interviews can elicit interviewees' thick descriptions of behaviour and experience, often with the aim of revealing more about knowledge, attitudes, and even values. A focus group is a type of group interview. It involves a group of respondents discussing a particular topic or theme. A focus group is usually directed by a facilitator. The facilitator helps guide discussion amongst the group, and this generates data for researchers to analyse. A focus group aims to simulate a real-life social context where people discuss issues. It can elicit participants' descriptions of behaviour and experience, and reveal more about knowledge, attitudes, and values. However, by considering interaction on a particular topic, its key strength is the understanding it can provide regarding the social construction of meanings, knowledge, and opinions in social settings. What data do these methods gather? In focus groups and in-depth interviews, it is the participants' performance and answers that provide data for the researcher, and also influence the direction of the discussion. Focus groups provide insight into social construction and interaction on issues, whereas in-depth interviews can probe individuals about their perspectives and thinking. This data tends to be unstructured compared to questionnaires or structured interviews. The discussions can yield very insightful information led by the participants or researcher during the interview or focus group, but the data will be messier and require organisation and interpretation for analysis. The data can be analysed in a number of ways, for example by looking for common themes or reoccurring patterns. What kind of research question can these methods help answer? Focus groups and in-depth interviews can help researchers in investigating human experiences and understandings. This can help answer a very wide range of research questions. Focus groups and in-depth interviews can be used to explore research topics, and researchers can probe for more information from interviewees or focus group participants where relevant issues arise. Focus groups and in-depth interviews can be used to investigate people's experiences, opinions and feelings. Such investigation can help explain why people act in a certain way or why particular phenomena are manifest in society. In this respect, both in-depth interviews and focus groups can be used to generate hypotheses or theories. As focus groups can be particularly useful in learning about how people discuss issues, they provide insight into how ideas are socially constructed. Obviously, in contrast, in-depth interviews allow deep investigation of individuals' personal experiences, opinions and feelings, and how they articulate them on a one-to-one basis. So what are the difficulties of these methods? Both methods can be time-consuming in setting up the interviews, but also in the analysis of data, especially if answers are recorded and transcribed. In-depth interviews and focus groups can be hindered by researcher bias. The interviewer or the facilitator must take some lead in directing the discussion, and through this there is potential for bias. Moreover, as the analysis of data will also likely require significant interpretation by the researcher, there is further opportunity for bias. Having said that, as the methods are unstructured, the researcher can potentially have less control over the directions conversations take. Discussions may become sidetracked and irrelevant, and in focus groups, particular individuals may dominate and lead the discussion and skew the data that is produced. As with questionnaires or structured interviews, participants may forget, lie or misunderstand questions, and focus groups and interviews are conducted in an artificial, unreal setting, so participants may respond differently to how they would in real life. Furthermore, participants may give answers that they believe interviewers want to hear. As there are likely to be less participants or interviewees than when conducting questionnaires or structured interviews, it is less likely that you will be able to make generalisations from a representative sample of a broader population. The Equality and Human Rights Commission used focus groups to conduct research on the rise of the far right in UK politics. This research sought to identify the reasons for the rise in far right support from the public's own perspective. 18 focus groups were conducted for this exploratory research in three areas of the north-west of England. Focus groups had 8-10 participants and lasted for 90 minutes each. Participants were purposively grouped together with those with the same ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. They were then asked very general and open questions about the local area and political parties. They found that respondents referred to threats to their jobs, the Labour Party's desertion of the working class, and a detachment between politicians and the electorate. There was also a suggestion that the thuggish image of the British National Party held that party back and another style of right-wing political party might do well. Perhaps only a focus group could have revealed these early signs of the potential future success of UKIP in England. Depending on the research question, interviews or questionnaires could be combined with most other methodologies. A researcher often selects each individual respondent very carefully according to who she or he believes can provide most valuable insight. This is known as a purposive sample. In focus groups, groups are normally selected to include people with similar backgrounds. This is to encourage participants to open up and replicate real life peer group situations. Key tips. A key skill is to listen and establish a rapport, but also to maintain control of the discussion where it goes off topic. The researcher should avoid leading questions, jargon and try to be clear at all times. If there is a list of points to be addressed, try to establish a logical order, possibly with a move from more general points to more specific ones. Some researchers advocate asking questions concerning behaviour and experience before those on opinion and feelings. Another key tip is to test your questions on a colleague or friend and check that they are understandable and not ambiguous. So here is a simplified, generic, step-by-step guide to in-depth interviews and focus groups. Firstly, undertake selection and recruitment of interviewees or respondents. Secondly, plan the list of topics to be discussed. The next step is to select a comfortable location and appropriate mode of recording data. This might involve the researcher taking notes, an audio recording or a video recording. Before you conduct the interview or focus group, check that you have informed consent. So inform participants of the title and purpose of your project and ask participants for their consent for you to question them and use the resulting data. You should also make it clear to the participants that they can withdraw their consent at any point. Then you can conduct the interview or focus group. Finally, you can analyse the data and write up results. To conclude, participants in focus groups are performing and the evaluations, opinion and experience that people articulate may be different to those that they do in an interview or even in their own personal thoughts. However, focus groups provide insight into how people interact in a social context and this can be particularly useful. They aim to reflect the communications that take place in real life. So by noting the agreements that are reached, the arguments that are made and even the ideas that are discarded, researchers can learn about how similar interactions might take place in real life situations. In-depth interviews facilitate deep understanding and probing of individuals' perspectives. Furthermore, focus groups and in-depth interviews empower the participants and place them in a central position in determining what is actually discussed. So, if they are used carefully, both these methods can be very powerful tools when researching people.