scholarly journals The Pitfalls and Promise of Focus Groups as a Data Collection Method

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Cyr
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Collection Method ◽  
Unit Of Analysis ◽  
Individual Unit ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

Despite their long trajectory in the social sciences, few systematic works analyze how often and for what purposes focus groups appear in published works. This study fills this gap by undertaking a meta-analysis of focus group use over the last 10 years. It makes several contributions to our understanding of when and why focus groups are used in the social sciences. First, the study explains that focus groups generate data at three units of analysis, namely, the individual, the group, and the interaction. Although most researchers rely upon the individual unit of analysis, the method’s comparative advantage lies in the group and interactive units. Second, it reveals strong affinities between each unit of analysis and the primary motivation for using focus groups as a data collection method. The individual unit of analysis is appropriate for triangulation; the group unit is appropriate as a pretest; and the interactive unit is appropriate for exploration. Finally, it offers a set of guidelines that researchers should adopt when presenting focus groups as part of their research design. Researchers should, first, state the main purpose of the focus group in a research design; second, identify the primary unit of analysis exploited; and finally, list the questions used to collect data in the focus group.

L. Levels of Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 155-158
Author(s):  
Mauro Caprioli ◽  
Claire Dupuy
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Levels Of Analysis ◽  
Unit Of Analysis ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Social ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Citizens Attitudes ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Level Of Analysis

This chapter studies levels of analysis. Research in the social sciences may be interested in subjects located at different levels of analysis. The level of analysis indicates the position at which social and political phenomena are analysed within a gradual order of abstraction or aggregation that is constructed analytically. Its definition and boundaries vary across social science disciplines. In general, the micro level refers to the individual level and focuses on citizens’ attitudes or politicians’ and diplomats’ behaviour. Analyses at the meso level focus on groups and organizations, like political parties, social movements, and public administrations. The macro level corresponds to structures that are national, social, economic, cultural, or institutional — for example, countries and national or supranational political regimes. The explanandum (what research aims to account for), the explanans (the explanations), the unit of analysis, and data collection can be located at different levels. The chapter then considers two main errors commonly associated with aggregation and levels of analysis: ecological and atomistic fallacies.

Conducting Comparative Participant Observation

2020 ◽  
pp. 57-87
Author(s):  
Corey M. Abramson ◽  
Martín Sánchez-Jankowski
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Causal Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Methodological Approaches

Following the argument for the importance of comparative participant observation for approaches descendent from the conventional scientific tradition (CST), this chapter outlines how the behavioralist foundations summarized in chapter 1 translate to procedures and techniques for charting causal mechanisms in comparative ethnographic research. The chapter begins by examining the practices and techniques of the behavioralist approach in detail and describes the mode of research design, sampling, data collection, analysis, and explanation associated with this approach, giving examples from prior empirical works. The chapter then turns to longstanding concerns about ethnographic reliability and replication and explains how this approach addresses them. In doing so, it shows how behavioralist criteria align with, and diverge from, other methodological approaches to the collection, analysis, and extension of ethnographic data. The chapter concludes by explaining the contributions that can be made by repositioning participant observation within the spectrum of approaches to understanding causal processes in the social sciences.

scholarly journals Collecting Sufficient Evidence When Conducting a Case Study

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pearl Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Single Source ◽  
Unit Of Analysis ◽  
The Social

Case study is a popular research design within the social sciences despite concerns of its credibility. Case studies provide an in-depth exploration of the unit of analysis (case). Hence, data triangulation is a key characteristic of the design whose purpose is to provide a thick, rich, and contextual description. Data for varied sources enhances credibility of the study. However, studies involving only one source of evidence exist in peer reviewed publications. This paper reviews the nature of case studies and discusses the importance of data triangulation. Further, three published case studies involving a single source of data are reviewed and suggestions of more appropriate designs are provided.

Operationalization

2021 ◽  
pp. 199-204
Author(s):  
Anne-Laure Mahé ◽  
Theodore McLauchlin
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Crucial Step ◽  
Theory Formation ◽  
Conceptual Argument ◽  
The Social

This chapter describes operationalization, which refers to the intellectual operations the researcher undertakes to decide how to observe a concept in reality. This is a crucial step of the research process, as many concepts in the social sciences are too abstract to be immediately observed. The most important criteria of a successful operationalization are consequently the consistency between each step of the research design, from theory formation to data collection, and the degree to which the indicators effectively allow the researcher to gather observations that work well in the context under study. One way to synthesize these points is that operationalization should enable the researcher to respect the principle of double adequacy. First, the researcher’s conceptual argument and the operationalized data should correspond. Second, there is a need for adequacy between those data and the ‘reference reality’.

The Art and Science of Educational Inquiry: Analysis of Performance-Based Focus Groups with Novice Bilingual Teachers

2009 ◽  
Vol 111 (11) ◽  
pp. 2535-2559
Author(s):  
Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor ◽  
Jennifer Wooten ◽  
Mariana Souto-Manning ◽  
Jaime L. Dice
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Bilingual Teachers ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Educational Inquiry

Background/Context For over two decades, the boundaries between the social sciences and the humanities have become blurred, and numerous articles and books have been written about the infusion of the arts in qualitative research as a means to collect and analyze data and to represent findings. Yet these arts-based research processes, although present in the social sciences, are still largely invisible in a research climate that privileges (e.g., through publication, funding, and recognition) work claiming to be exclusively scientific. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study To fully develop the potential of the arts for a transformative educational inquiry, the synthesis of scientific and artistic methods must be fully explicated through clear examples that address theoretical and empirical concerns. This article focuses on explicit arts-based approaches that the authors employed in a 3-year teacher education study of professional conflicts experienced by novice bilingual teachers. Authors describe how they used the arts and to what end, addressing questions of artistic processes, expertise, and research validity. Research Design The research design included theatrical and literary techniques alongside more traditional qualitative methods of inquiry (e.g., participant observation, audio- and video-recorded focus group interactions, interviews, and surveys). Authors initiated performative focus groups based on the work of Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal in which participants share and act scenes from power-laden experiences of conflict, rehearsing strategies for personal and social revolution. This embodied data enabled the research team to focus empirical and pedagogical attention on both participants’ physical and verbal “scripts” or trans/scripts: compressed renderings of original transcripts that utilize techniques from poetry and the dramatic arts to highlight the data's emotional “hot points” and heightened language from the original discourse. Conclusions/Recommendations This study illuminated the range of experiences and emotions involved in novice bilingual teachers’ professional lives, signaling the value and validity of research that is both artistic and scientific. Such hybridity may at first appear to make for unexpected and potentially haphazard methodological mergers. The authors do not claim to have resolved these epistemological tensions, but to have exploited both traditional and artistic research methods to broaden the notion of what counts as “research” in teacher education and to conduct research that is engaging to researchers and participants alike.

scholarly journals Fokus: technika i jej zastosowanie w badaniach edukacyjnych

1970 ◽  
pp. 19-27
Author(s):  
Sławomir Banaszak
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Focus Group Interview ◽  
Group Interview ◽  
Communication Techniques ◽  
Group Focus

A Focus group interview (FGI), the focused group, focus groups or just focus are the definitionsof data collection techniques which, after several decades of development, have become an important part of research plans in social sciences. Placing the focus on communication techniques leads us to combine analyses consisting of interview and observation. It also raises the question whether the focus, which by definitioncombines and directly expresses the strengths and weaknesses of communication techniques and the strengths and weaknesses of observation techniques, allows achieving some kind of methodological synergy. In addition, the essence of measurement in science and – more closely – in social sciences seems to be an important context for the empirical functioning of the focus and for researchers preferring this technique of data collection.

The Everyday in a Time of Transformation: Exploring a Single South African Lifeworld after 20 Years of Democracy

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-54
Author(s):  
P. Conrad Kotze ◽  
Jan K. Coetzee
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Ontological Turn ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Epistemological Framework

Transformation has come to be a defining characteristic of contemporary societies, while it has rarely been studied in a way that gives acknowledgement to both its societal effects and the experience thereof by the individual. This article discusses a recent study that attempts to do just that. The everyday life of a South African is explored within the context of changes that can be linked, more or less directly, to those that have characterized South Africa as a state since the end of apartheid in 1994. The study strives to avoid the pitfalls associated with either an empirical or solely constructivist appreciation of this phenomenon, but rather represents an integral onto-epistemological framework for the practice of sociological research. The illustrated framework is argued to facilitate an analysis of social reality that encompasses all aspects thereof, from the objectively given to the intersubjectively constructed and subjectively constituted. While not requiring extensive development on the theoretical or methodological level, the possibility of carrying out such an integral study is highlighted as being comfortably within the capabilities of sociology as a discipline. While the article sheds light on the experience of transformation, it is also intended to contribute to the contemporary debate surrounding the current “ontological turn” within the social sciences.

scholarly journals Measuring social networks in primates: wearable sensors versus direct observations

2020 ◽  
Vol 476 (2236) ◽  
pp. 20190737
Author(s):  
Valeria Gelardi ◽  
Jeanne Godard ◽  
Dany Paleressompoulle ◽  
Nicolas Claidiere ◽  
Alain Barrat
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Wearable Sensors ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Collection Method ◽  
Data Collection Method ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Data Yield

Network analysis represents a valuable and flexible framework to understand the structure of individual interactions at the population level in animal societies. The versatility of network representations is moreover suited to different types of datasets describing these interactions. However, depending on the data collection method, different pictures of the social bonds between individuals could a priori emerge. Understanding how the data collection method influences the description of the social structure of a group is thus essential to assess the reliability of social studies based on different types of data. This is however rarely feasible, especially for animal groups, where data collection is often challenging. Here, we address this issue by comparing datasets of interactions between primates collected through two different methods: behavioural observations and wearable proximity sensors. We show that, although many directly observed interactions are not detected by the sensors, the global pictures obtained when aggregating the data to build interaction networks turn out to be remarkably similar. Moreover, sensor data yield a reliable social network over short time scales and can be used for long-term studies, showing their important potential for detailed studies of the evolution of animal social groups.

scholarly journals Something for Everyone: A Review of Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Approaches

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Tarnoki ◽  
Katheryne Puentes
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Family Therapy ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Doctoral Programs ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
The Social ◽  
Nova Southeastern University

Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches (2018), by John W. Creswell and Cheryl N. Poth was written for anyone who is considering themselves to be researchers or interested in learning more about qualitative research. As students in doctoral programs studying family therapy at Nova Southeastern University, we felt that parts of the text were explicitly tailored toward the social sciences; however, the chapters are useful for anyone interested in qualitative research from many angles and aspects.

Macroergonomic Methods: Interviews and Focus Groups

2002 ◽  
Vol 46 (15) ◽  
pp. 1355-1359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah C. Newman
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Group Processes ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Individual Interview ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Human Condition

Both the interviewing and focus group processes have been around and in use as tools for gathering information for decades. For someone who is interested in learning more about people and their experiences, what better way to accomplish this than by speaking directly with an individual or group of individuals? Individual as well as group interviews are windows to an understanding of the behaviors of those being interviewed. Focus groups, specifically, are viewed as a window into the human condition and human interaction. Although, the individual interview is one of the most widely used methods for collecting qualitative data, focus groups have recently gained more popularity among qualitative researchers as a method of choice.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document