WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.980 --> 00:00:04.590 Hello and welcome to the video lecture 2 00:00:04.590 --> 00:00:07.140 on key informant interviews and focus groups, 3 00:00:07.140 --> 00:00:08.760 which are two 4 00:00:08.760 --> 00:00:13.530 very common, qualitative, data collection methods 5 00:00:13.530 --> 00:00:15.633 used by social scientists. 6 00:00:18.060 --> 00:00:21.840 So, this is what you're gonna talk about, these two types: 7 00:00:21.840 --> 00:00:26.190 Key informant and focus groups, compare and contrast, 8 00:00:26.190 --> 00:00:29.700 and some how-tos of sort of, what's a good use of each one, 9 00:00:29.700 --> 00:00:33.483 and what are some key considerations when you use them. 10 00:00:39.060 --> 00:00:43.050 So, again, we're gonna compare and contrast these two, 11 00:00:43.050 --> 00:00:45.660 talk about their pros and cons, 12 00:00:45.660 --> 00:00:48.340 and which ones are better to use 13 00:00:49.500 --> 00:00:51.603 in a given setting. 14 00:00:52.950 --> 00:00:57.450 So, comparing them, they are both qualitative methods, 15 00:00:57.450 --> 00:00:59.970 they're both a form of interviews. 16 00:00:59.970 --> 00:01:04.230 You have folks give their responses in their own words, 17 00:01:04.230 --> 00:01:08.070 so they're therefore more valid, less reliable. 18 00:01:08.070 --> 00:01:11.430 Very often they are recorded or transcribed, 19 00:01:11.430 --> 00:01:15.630 or, I mean, recorded and then transcribed, 20 00:01:15.630 --> 00:01:18.360 especially work for a thesis, 21 00:01:18.360 --> 00:01:20.370 a grad student thesis, 22 00:01:20.370 --> 00:01:23.973 or dissertation, or faculty research, or both. 23 00:01:25.230 --> 00:01:27.270 And they're both effective 24 00:01:27.270 --> 00:01:30.330 at gaining your research subject's 25 00:01:30.330 --> 00:01:33.450 perspectives, perceptions, experiences, 26 00:01:33.450 --> 00:01:35.340 what are their experiences 27 00:01:35.340 --> 00:01:38.940 of the matter that you are researching. 28 00:01:38.940 --> 00:01:41.943 They can be flexible and vary in depth. 29 00:01:44.130 --> 00:01:46.230 Now, to contrast them, 30 00:01:46.230 --> 00:01:49.290 focus groups are just that, they are groups. 31 00:01:49.290 --> 00:01:54.290 So, they tend to be something like 5 to 10 per group. 32 00:01:54.720 --> 00:01:57.480 Usually you have to pay the subjects, 33 00:01:57.480 --> 00:01:59.943 and if they're in person, 34 00:02:01.710 --> 00:02:03.363 provide some food and drink. 35 00:02:05.160 --> 00:02:08.610 I have used a virtual focus group, 36 00:02:08.610 --> 00:02:10.590 like on Teams and Zooms, and those work too, 37 00:02:10.590 --> 00:02:14.700 and, of course, you can virtually send 38 00:02:14.700 --> 00:02:19.370 somebody a drink or a bag of chips, but anyway... 39 00:02:21.240 --> 00:02:24.270 And the key is you want your subjects 40 00:02:24.270 --> 00:02:26.250 to interact with each other 41 00:02:26.250 --> 00:02:29.163 and build on each other's responses. 42 00:02:30.450 --> 00:02:34.350 And you often would want to have both a facilitator 43 00:02:34.350 --> 00:02:37.530 who sort of asks the questions and keeps things moving, 44 00:02:37.530 --> 00:02:39.660 and a note taker, 45 00:02:39.660 --> 00:02:42.750 and you compose these groups, 46 00:02:42.750 --> 00:02:45.270 you create these groups 47 00:02:45.270 --> 00:02:50.270 so that they are homogeneous within, and diverse without. 48 00:02:50.580 --> 00:02:54.690 So you think about a dimension, a variability 49 00:02:54.690 --> 00:02:56.880 that you think is important, 50 00:02:56.880 --> 00:02:58.713 and each group has, 51 00:02:59.640 --> 00:03:01.710 inside of each group 52 00:03:01.710 --> 00:03:06.450 has folks that sort of share that attribute. 53 00:03:06.450 --> 00:03:10.060 And then each group sort of 54 00:03:12.060 --> 00:03:13.170 do not share. 55 00:03:13.170 --> 00:03:16.620 So you might wanna group people by race, 56 00:03:16.620 --> 00:03:20.005 and have a group of African Americans, 57 00:03:20.005 --> 00:03:23.580 and a group of Latinos, and a group of Asians, 58 00:03:23.580 --> 00:03:26.280 and a group of white people or something like that. 59 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:28.170 You might want a group 60 00:03:28.170 --> 00:03:30.750 that are all high-income or a low-income 61 00:03:30.750 --> 00:03:32.010 that are of the same age, 62 00:03:32.010 --> 00:03:33.900 that live in the same spot. 63 00:03:33.900 --> 00:03:36.310 But that's the key here is you want 64 00:03:38.010 --> 00:03:42.300 the subjects within the groups to be more alike, 65 00:03:42.300 --> 00:03:46.983 but to have key differences from group to group. 66 00:03:49.110 --> 00:03:51.420 So you might wanna think about 67 00:03:51.420 --> 00:03:54.630 how can you construct focus groups 68 00:03:54.630 --> 00:03:58.590 that are homogeneous within, diverse without 69 00:03:58.590 --> 00:04:00.273 for our project? 70 00:04:05.250 --> 00:04:06.840 In contrast of focus group, 71 00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:10.890 key informant interviews are usually one-on-one 72 00:04:10.890 --> 00:04:12.810 that there might be a small group there, 73 00:04:12.810 --> 00:04:14.580 but for the most part 74 00:04:14.580 --> 00:04:18.210 they're just the researcher and the subject, 75 00:04:18.210 --> 00:04:21.480 they're more commonly unpaid. 76 00:04:21.480 --> 00:04:24.360 And the key informant is 77 00:04:24.360 --> 00:04:27.930 that someone who knows about the subject, 78 00:04:27.930 --> 00:04:31.590 who is knowledgeable, has experience, 79 00:04:31.590 --> 00:04:35.130 and they can speak about that thing. 80 00:04:35.130 --> 00:04:37.020 And, again, to think about 81 00:04:37.020 --> 00:04:40.020 who would be some key informants for our project, 82 00:04:40.020 --> 00:04:41.610 who knows about this, 83 00:04:41.610 --> 00:04:43.920 who is knowledgeable, who has experience, 84 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:46.440 who has valuable perspectives 85 00:04:46.440 --> 00:04:48.633 on the subject that we can learn from. 86 00:04:50.760 --> 00:04:53.500 So there's a number of times when it is 87 00:04:54.840 --> 00:04:57.960 prudent to use focus groups, 88 00:04:57.960 --> 00:05:00.990 and I'm gonna walk through a few. 89 00:05:00.990 --> 00:05:05.370 So, first, if there's a great deal of power hierarchy 90 00:05:05.370 --> 00:05:09.180 where the subjects may not feel safe, 91 00:05:09.180 --> 00:05:13.020 really sharing their experiences, one-on-one, 92 00:05:13.020 --> 00:05:15.660 there might be sort of safety in numbers 93 00:05:15.660 --> 00:05:18.700 where they feel more safe speaking 94 00:05:22.110 --> 00:05:23.190 within a group, 95 00:05:23.190 --> 00:05:25.560 especially folks that are sort of lower 96 00:05:25.560 --> 00:05:28.443 in the power hierarchy scale. 97 00:05:30.930 --> 00:05:32.820 Next, is when 98 00:05:32.820 --> 00:05:36.240 the subjects sort of 99 00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:41.220 have very different perspectives and terminology 100 00:05:41.220 --> 00:05:44.310 that the researcher may not understand 101 00:05:44.310 --> 00:05:46.320 and can gain a better understanding 102 00:05:46.320 --> 00:05:49.080 of that sort of specific worldview 103 00:05:49.080 --> 00:05:51.780 and the sort of lingo they use 104 00:05:51.780 --> 00:05:54.333 in terms by having a group. 105 00:05:58.149 --> 00:06:00.780 Similarly to the first one, 106 00:06:00.780 --> 00:06:04.560 if there's sort of a lot of conflict or mistrust, 107 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:07.680 that having it in a group 108 00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:09.450 might sort of make them feel heard, 109 00:06:09.450 --> 00:06:12.783 and make them more honest about what their experiences are. 110 00:06:14.460 --> 00:06:18.390 And the final reason is 111 00:06:18.390 --> 00:06:20.280 that if you're afraid 112 00:06:20.280 --> 00:06:23.190 that your subjects might not take it seriously, 113 00:06:23.190 --> 00:06:27.980 that having them answer in a group, there may be more... 114 00:06:28.890 --> 00:06:32.070 the group will hold them accountable. 115 00:06:32.070 --> 00:06:35.460 And if they say something that is sort of not true, 116 00:06:35.460 --> 00:06:37.050 or if they're just making, 117 00:06:37.050 --> 00:06:42.050 you know, a sarcastic or remark, or like that, 118 00:06:42.090 --> 00:06:42.923 the group can kind of hold them, 119 00:06:42.923 --> 00:06:44.790 and make it accountable and say, 120 00:06:44.790 --> 00:06:47.967 you know, "No, that isn't my experience." 121 00:06:49.740 --> 00:06:52.380 So, again, the pros are 122 00:06:52.380 --> 00:06:55.290 this sort of safety and affirmation in numbers, 123 00:06:55.290 --> 00:06:57.990 or when many voices may be needed 124 00:06:57.990 --> 00:07:02.193 to overcome complexity or unfamiliarity. 125 00:07:04.170 --> 00:07:07.560 There are also a number of cons. 126 00:07:07.560 --> 00:07:10.857 It can also be hard to tell like, "Who said what?" 127 00:07:11.949 --> 00:07:14.850 You know, when you have a group 128 00:07:14.850 --> 00:07:18.060 who gave each response may be important 129 00:07:18.060 --> 00:07:22.920 but may be harder to track that you need skilled moderation. 130 00:07:22.920 --> 00:07:25.140 It takes time and effort to get, you know, 131 00:07:25.140 --> 00:07:28.500 a bunch of people at the same place at the same time. 132 00:07:28.500 --> 00:07:31.290 And you need a controlled environment, 133 00:07:31.290 --> 00:07:33.600 and may need to pay for the room, 134 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:36.963 for the participants, for the snacks, and things like that. 135 00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:42.540 So, key informant interviews, 136 00:07:42.540 --> 00:07:46.170 again, are more commonly one-on-one 137 00:07:46.170 --> 00:07:49.203 that you wanna familiarize with a topic, 138 00:07:50.400 --> 00:07:54.810 and you talk with a fairly small number of folks 139 00:07:54.810 --> 00:07:57.720 that have the information and experience 140 00:07:57.720 --> 00:08:00.663 that you want that are familiar and knowledgeable. 141 00:08:02.640 --> 00:08:05.400 This can also be used to... 142 00:08:05.400 --> 00:08:09.150 we talked about snowball sampling of finding others 143 00:08:09.150 --> 00:08:12.063 that are knowledgeable that can build on that. 144 00:08:15.060 --> 00:08:17.490 The advantages are that you get 145 00:08:17.490 --> 00:08:20.160 a detailed, enriched dataset, 146 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:23.223 and there's a good deal of flexibility. 147 00:08:25.590 --> 00:08:29.740 The responses are very valid and 148 00:08:31.110 --> 00:08:34.350 if you find that there's an important matter 149 00:08:34.350 --> 00:08:35.370 that you didn't ask, 150 00:08:35.370 --> 00:08:37.050 in some cases 151 00:08:37.050 --> 00:08:38.917 you can go back and say like, 152 00:08:38.917 --> 00:08:41.200 "Hey, I didn't ask you this," or 153 00:08:42.330 --> 00:08:46.350 maybe something that they said that wasn't clear. 154 00:08:46.350 --> 00:08:48.900 You can in theory go back 155 00:08:48.900 --> 00:08:53.253 and ask the new question or have them clarify. 156 00:08:55.710 --> 00:09:00.150 The downside is to find the right informants 157 00:09:00.150 --> 00:09:02.490 that sort of represent 158 00:09:02.490 --> 00:09:06.630 the breadth of possible responses. 159 00:09:06.630 --> 00:09:08.910 While not as hard as focus groups, 160 00:09:08.910 --> 00:09:10.360 still getting people 161 00:09:12.451 --> 00:09:15.150 to respond to your emails 162 00:09:15.150 --> 00:09:18.420 and show up to the interviews may be hard, 163 00:09:18.420 --> 00:09:21.690 and you cannot generalize 164 00:09:21.690 --> 00:09:24.040 the results to any larger 165 00:09:27.390 --> 00:09:28.413 population. 166 00:09:30.960 --> 00:09:33.000 And so, they're just going 167 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:36.300 to give you their own impressions. 168 00:09:36.300 --> 00:09:37.980 They're gonna tell you, hopefully, 169 00:09:37.980 --> 00:09:40.440 what they truly know and think, 170 00:09:40.440 --> 00:09:42.930 and believe and how they behave, 171 00:09:42.930 --> 00:09:46.503 but there is prone to social desirability bias. 172 00:09:47.550 --> 00:09:52.410 And this is a well-known problem in social science research 173 00:09:52.410 --> 00:09:57.410 where folks are not giving the right answer, 174 00:09:57.420 --> 00:09:59.583 because in some cases, 175 00:10:01.110 --> 00:10:04.950 they will tell you what you want to hear, 176 00:10:04.950 --> 00:10:06.150 or they will tell you 177 00:10:06.150 --> 00:10:07.890 what they think makes them look good 178 00:10:07.890 --> 00:10:10.860 instead of what is the actual truth for them, 179 00:10:10.860 --> 00:10:13.863 and we'll be talking more about this and how to avoid it. 180 00:10:17.370 --> 00:10:19.140 So, this is what we did. 181 00:10:19.140 --> 00:10:21.180 We compared and contrasted 182 00:10:21.180 --> 00:10:22.380 and talked about how to, 183 00:10:22.380 --> 00:10:26.550 and when to use key informant interviews and focus groups. 184 00:10:26.550 --> 00:10:27.383 Thank you.