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How to interview and conduct focus groups

Jennifer Katz-Buonincontro, PhD

Interviews and focus groups are essential tools of qualitative research. This guide shows students and early-career researchers how to prepare for and conduct interviews and focus groups.

This book shows researchers how to plan for and conduct interviews and focus groups, and how to use them in various qualitative research designs. It also explains how to code, analyze, and report the data once it's been gathered.

By following the advice in this book, you will hone your inductive logic skills and learn how to convey the authentic voices of your interview subjects. In addition, you will learn professional skills for using technology ethically and appropriately.

Helpful tools in the book include example interview protocols, tips for recruitment and requesting consent, group facilitation guidelines, instructions for creating codebooks, and samples of different writing and publishing formats.

This book is part of APA's Concise Guides to Conducting Behavioral, Health, and Social Science Research series. Aimed at undergraduate students in research methods courses or others with a lab or research project, each book describes a key stage in the research process. Collectively, these books provide a solid grounding in research from start to finish.

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