Estratégias de pesquisa em contextos de diversidade cultural: entrevistas de listagem livre, entrevistas com informantes-chave e grupos focais

the objective of this article is to present and discuss three research strategies which, when used separately or combined in qualitative or quantiqualitative studies, may facilitate the researcher's understanding of the cultural universe of study participants, especially in contexts of cultural diversity. one understands that there is cultural diversity when the life experience, concepts, values and theoretical presuppositions of the researcher are not the same as those of the participants of a study. the three methods that are presented, as well as their possible combinations, are: free-listing interviews, key-informant and focus group interviews. examples of empirical research in the field of public health and psychology are also presented to demonstrate the applicability of these research strategies.