Group interviews

A topic in research methodology

"Social processes at work in a group make the group interview in some ways more productive, in others less productive, than an individual interview."

Merton, Fiske & Kendall, 1990

Most research interviews tend to be between a researcher and a single participant. However, it is also possible to interview a group of respondents together. The choice should be made on principled grounds:

"Group interviews, where several informants are interviewed together, have a number of advantages. Some students are much more comfortable talking to a researcher in pairs or groups, especially where they are interviewed with friends. Group interviews also allow the comments of one student to act as a stimulus for another, perhaps eliciting information that would not otherwise have been revealed…

The obvious disadvantage to this type of interview is that the responses that individuals give cannot be assumed to be the same as they might have offered if interviewed alone. …

Generally, though, there is no clear preference for individual or group interviews. The former are clearly appropriate in some situations where the presence of other learners would 'contaminate' the data being collected. However, for a study of student learning from a perspective that viewed the learning process as primarily mediated through interactions within a class, a researcher might well feel that group interviews give more pertinent data."

(Taber, 2013: 276-277)

Individual interviews focus on the pure thinking, knowledge, experiences, etcetera, of the individual person (e.g,. this might fit a study adopting a personal constructivist theoretical perspective)

Group interviews allow interactions (which may act as 'authentic' cues), and allow a focus on the construction of knowledge, and experience in the interpersonal 'plane' (e.g. this might fit a study adopting a social constructivist or a constructionist theoretical perspective).

"At times, it may be useful to interview students in pairs or groups of three or four. The advantages are that the students may act as catalysts to each other's thinking and the group situation may make the students feel more at ease."

Bell, 1995: 357

"There are numerous relationships that can exist between interviewee and interviewer in a one-to-one interview, from peer, friend, and counsellor to remorseless interrogator. In group interviews the situation is slightly different. The interviewer wants to allow free discussion and yet at the same time keep the thread moving in a particular direction so that the needs of the research design are met."

Watts & Ebbutt, 1987: 28-29

Challenges of group interviewing

Group interviews need careful management

"In seeking to obtain data on responses from all members of the group, the interviewer is confronted with a threefold problem:

first, to keep the most fluent members of the group from dominating the interview, without curbing spontaneity or damaging rapport;

second, to draw out interviewees who at first say little or nothing;

and third, to obtain substantial coverage of the entire group in regard to each pertinent subject matter."

Merton, Fiske & Kendall, 1990

Group interviews are sometimes considered synonymous with focus groups. These are really rather different techniques, although there is a continuum of possibilities between pure group interviews and focus groups.

Read about focus groups

Type of data collection technique	Description
Group interview	The researcher asks questions to a small group of participants
?	The researcher observes a small group undertaking a discussion activity set up by the researcher and from time to time interjects to ask for clarifications, exemplifications and the like
Focus group	The researcher observes a small group undertaking a discussion activity set up by the researcher

Sources cited:

• Bell, Beverley (1995) Interviewing: a technique for assessing science knowledge, Chapter 15 of Glynn, Shawn M. & Duit, Reinders (Eds.) (1995) Learning Science in the Schools: Research Reforming Practice, Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp.347-364.
• Merton, R. K., Fiske, M., & Kendall, P. L. (1990). Merton, R. K., Fiske, M., & Kendall, P. L. (1990 (2nd ed.). New York: The Free Press.
• Taber, K. S. (2013). Classroom-based Research and Evidence-based Practice: An introduction (2nd ed.). London: Sage.
• Watts, M., & Ebbutt, D. (1987). More Than the Sum of the Parts: Research Methods in Group Interviewing. British Educational Research Journal, 13(1), 25-34.