Conferences

Qualitative methods (focus groups, in-depth interviews, open-ended responses) can be profitably employed in conjunction with survey research in different ways and at different points in the design and conduct of a study. By casting light on areas or aspects of an issue of interest to potential respondents, focus groups can help to inform development of the survey questionnaire. Alternatively, carrying out focus groups or in-depth interviews with subsets of survey respondents after the administration of a sample survey may serve to contextualize, deepen and refine the understanding of survey responses. Similarly, affording survey respondents the opportunity to provide some answers in open-ended fashion on a largely close-ended survey instrument may reveal nascent issues or areas of concern that would otherwise go undetected and at the same time, provide the basis for additional response categories or new survey questions in subsequent iterations of the instrument. Ideally, the two types of methods should be mutually informing, operating in a continuous feedback loop involving clarification of basic concepts, revision and refinement of survey instruments, and analysis and interpretation of findings. Unfortunately, this “loop” is often left open or incomplete in such a way that the full benefits of combined use of both types of methods remain unrealized.

This presentation will present case examples of several different ways in which qualitative methods have been profitably combined with sample surveys in research studies carried out for US federal government agencies , with special emphasis on how in each case the qualitative component helped to enrich, refine, or critique the methodology and/or results of the survey component. We will conclude by discussing particular areas where the “feedback loop” between the qualitative and quantitative components could, and should, be further strengthened.