Focus groups/group interviews

• Group interviews


  • Unstructured interviews conducted with a small number of people being present at the same time
  • The sociologist acts as a facilitator, feeding in questions or ideas for the group to discuss
  • Usually 6-12 people brought together in a room to engage in a guided discussion of a topic
• Willis


  Learning to labour study
• Neo-Marxist Willis


  studied working class 'lads' in a high school in Wolverhampton. They were said to be aware of class inequality in education and then continued to defy the education system by purposely being disruptive in school.
• Willis did a group interview


  he asked prompting questions and observed how they would normally behave and found they were more at easer since they outnumbered the researcher and were all together so he could also observe their dynamic
• There was a leader that prompted the responses of the group and was often picked on more than others
• group interviews consist of around 6-12 people and the sociologist as the facilitator
• This is a qualitative approach as it studies social meaning (valid and verstehen established)
• This method is known to be time consuming
• Favoured by interpretivists