A group of 8 to 12 carefully selected people are brought together to discuss a specific topic with a facilitator encouraging and monitoring the flow of the discussion. Usually the participants come from similar backgrounds and experiences and the topic focuses on their opinions and knowledge of that common experience. These surveys are usually conducted with open-ended questions and administered to a sample size of from 25 to 50 people who are not selected randomly, but selected by some other less formal method. Participants answer questions about themselves as opposed to key informant interviewees who usually provide information about other people. Interviews Interviews vary by their degree of pre-determined form and structure.
Focused interviews have certain topics to cover in an unspecified order.
The most structured interviews contain ordered questions requiring specific types of answers. Semi-projective techniques provide stimuli such as games, stories, and visual materials to which participants respond, often providing information that is not directly related, but very important to understanding social relations. Transects Walking through an area perhaps associated with a mapping exercise. Oral histories Usually personal, but can extend to crops, animals, etc. Seasonal calendars Seasonal calendar for items such as rainfall, diet, health.