Depth interviews and focus groups

Abstract

Interviews are still one of the most widely used methods today because they enable us to document multiple perspectives of reality; they extend our understanding of people’s motivations, perceptions, and experiences; and they enable us to study ordinary and extraordinary events that happen in ‘real life settings’. This chapter will be looking at two qualitative methods, the focus group interview, and the depth interview. The purpose is to provide an overview of the process that a researcher undertakes when using these research methods, from identifying the problem to analysing the data. While each method can be used on its own, they can also be used to complement each other in order to gain a greater understanding of the research problem, and they can be used to support other methods (e.g. survey based research). Two case studies are referred to throughout the chapter to illustrate how these methods can be used.