Method effects in survey and focus group findings: understanding smoking cessation in low-SES African American women

The same pool of African American women participated in a survey and in focus groups on motivation to quit smoking. Findings from the two studies were compared to explore potential method effects. Consistent with each method's basic purposes, the survey identified variation in study variables based on accepted theory and association patterns among such variables. The focus groups discovered themes and images salient to the participants and highlighted the situational contexts that gave meaning to smoking and smoking cessation. Survey method limitations included poor sensitivity to topic salience and contextual meanings and a deductive mode that channeled interpretation of results within the boundaries predefined by the study's theoretical framework. Focus group method limitations included an overfocus on the most dramatic and uncommon evidence and lack of systematic ways to identify explanations that may underlie the participants' overt expressions. Together, the multiple findings complemented and explained each other.