Methodological Considerations in Utilization of Focus Groups in an IPA Study of Bereaved Parental Cancer Caregivers in Nairobi

Abstract

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is an approach to qualitative inquiry in psychology that focuses on experiential meanings individuals ascribe to significant lived experiences. IPA’s flexibility is evident in application of its techniques with various methods, including individual interviews and focus groups, and in the freedom it accords researchers to work with various emphases—for example, experiential and contextual foregrounding. Even so, the combination of IPA and focus groups is not a simplistic one but rather one that warrants in-depth engagement, a process that entails (a) furnishing a theoretical based justification for one’s choice of method and (b) detailed explication of procedures involved in the application of focus group method within an IPA framework. In this article, I discuss methodological considerations in my utilization of focus groups, within an IPA framework, to explore the lived experiences of a sample of bereaved parental cancer caregivers in Nairobi.