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Interviewing: Unstructured and Semistructured 237
believe that a woman has a right to an abortion, then focus groups are not the
method of choice.
A proportion is a number, and if you want a good number—a valid one, a
useful one—then you need a method that produces exactly that. A survey,
based on a representative sample, is the method of choice here. But if you
want information about content—about why people think a woman should or
should not have the right to an abortion—then that’s just the sort of thing a
focus group can illuminate.
Focus Group Size, Composition, Number
Focus groups typically have 6–12 members, plus a moderator. Seven or
eight people is a popular size. If a group is too small, it can be dominated by
one or two loudmouths; if it gets beyond 10 or 12, it gets tough to manage.
However, smaller groups are better when you’re trying to get really in-depth
discussions going about sensitive issues (Morgan 1997). Of course, this
assumes that the group is run by a skilled moderator who knows how to get
people to open up and how keep them opened up.
The participants in a focus group should be more or less homogeneous and,
in general, should not know one another. Richard Krueger, a very experienced
focus group moderator, says that ‘‘familiarity tends to inhibit disclosure’’
(1994:18). It’s easy to open up more when you get into a discussion with people
whom you are unlikely ever to see again (sort of like what happens on
long air flights).
Obviously, what ‘‘homogeneous’’ means depends on what you’re trying to
learn. If you want to know why a smaller percentage of middle-class African
American women over 40 get mammograms than do their white counterparts,
then you need a group of middle-class African American women who are over
40.
Running a Focus Group
The group moderator gets people talking about whatever issue is under discussion.
Leading a focus group requires the combined skills of an ethnographer,
a survey researcher, and a therapist. You have to watch out for people
who want to show off and close them down without coming on too strongly.
You have to watch out for shy people and draw them out, without being intimidating.
Tips on how to do all this, and a lot more, are in The Focus Group Kit, a
series of six how-to books (Morgan and Krueger 1998). Don’t even think
about getting into focus group management without going through this kit.