Designing for Emergence in Focus Groups

     One of the most common pieces of advice in introductions to qualitative research is the need to alternate between data collection and data analysis. The common metaphor here is a cyclical rather than a linear process. Another name for this strategy is emergent design, where the original research design is only a starting point, which evolves over time. This contrasts to quantitative research, which typically…

When I first became interested in focus groups, we were still receiving most of our advice about how to do focus groups from marketing researchers, where that advice often included groups as large as 9-12. Since then, the recommended size for social science focus groups has fallen to a range of 4 to 8. In other words, we have explored the upper sizes of the old range and found them too large for most of our purposes.

With regard to larger size groups, the most likely…

I put this blog posting ("Focus Groups are We Stuck in a Rut?") on the wall in the new group on "Focus Groups" so that we can keep all the comments in one place.

One of my goals in this section of Methodspace is to set up a blog, and add to it on a more or less monthly basis. Of course, I want this section be more than just my own ideas. So, there is lots of room for questions, comments, and other content here -- and even more room for discussion of those issues. In…