We are analyzing data from a qualitative research study in which we conducted focus groups. However, for one focus group, only one person showed up. We went ahead and did the focus group, but can we include this in our analysis? What factors do I need to consider about whether or not to include it?
Part of the point of a focus group is that the group comes to some consensus and discusses a range of factors about a specific topic. The interaction with other participants is an important factor in focus groups. You will still have information about the topic that you were studying, but the data will be similar to the data that you would get from a semi-structured interview. It is quite possible that your single-participant focus group data will be quite different--there was no opportunity for dissenting opinions or for ideas to bounce off of each other and build on each other. Although I would recommend rescheduling the focus group discussion if only one participant shows up, you still have rich data from what transpired.
My recommendation is to consider the fact that your data from the focus group with one participant will bear more similarities to a one-on-one, semi-structured interview than to a focus group. I would also recommend reporting the events that led up to this and reporting the results of this interview separately. If you're still in the data collection process, it may be worth collecting a few more single-participant interviews and using the same protocol. You could have an entirely separate analysis to discuss for the paper. Further, you may even be able to describe the differences in these responses and send them to a journal that focuses on qualitative research methods. That would give you at least two papers from this project.
I hope this helped!
A focus group is a small, but demographically diverse group of people and whose reactions are studied. If there are two or more people definitely discussion would lead to a better results
My student has the same dilemma - you can count it as an individual interview because it is not a focus group with one person. It could be classified as a key informant interview or an individual interview. What is key is the purpose of the interview and this needs to be explained in your methods/ethics discussion.
A focus group generally has atleast 8-10 participants.If only one person was present then the same cannot even be called a focus group.Rather it is an in depth interview with only one sample.
One individual will not form a focus group. you may consider an in-depth interview with that individual. Just as others have explained above, focus group is a group of people 8-10 participants.
Since the hallmark of a focus group is the interaction among the participants, it is not possible to have a one-person focus group. Instead, that should be treated as an individual interview, which could be considered to be additional data.
FYI throughout my writing on focus groups, I have repeatedly emphasized that recruitment is the single biggest problem with this method.
You can add the data coming out of the in-depth individual (whether structured or not) interview but not as a focus group since it does not meet the criteria of focus group
I agree with David L Morgan
Two simple replies:
1- "one person" is not a "group"
2- the aim of the focus group is to look at the interaction between the persons that are part of the group.
In other words that is just an interview. Moreover: the "stimulus" we use in a Focus group is not the one we use in an interview.
- Badges
- Science method
- Similar topics
- Methodology
- Research Methodology
- Qualitative Research