Focus Groups - Introduction to Social Research Methods - Lecture Slides, Slides of Research Methodology

Download Focus Groups - Introduction to Social Research Methods - Lecture Slides and more Slides Research Methodology in PDF only on Docsity!

Focus Groups

Definition

• From Eliot and Associates: A focus group is a small group of six to ten people led through an open discussion by a skilled moderator. The group needs to be large enough to generate rich discussion but not so large that participants are left out.
• The focus group moderator nurtures disclosure in an open and spontaneous format. The moderator's goal is to generate a maximum number of different ideas and opinions from different people in the time allotted.

Question Guidelines: Questions should

be…

• Short and to the point
• Focused on one dimension each
• Unambiguously worded
• Open-ended or sentence completion types
• Non-threatening or embarrassing
• Worded in a way that they cannot be

answered with a simple “yes””or “”no””answer (use “”why””and “”how””instead)

Question Design

• There are three types of focus group questions:

1. Engagement questions: introduce participants to and make them comfortable with the topic of discussion

2. Exploration questions: get to the meat of the discussion

3. Exit question: check to see if anything was missed in the discussion

Recruitment

• Members should be unacquainted
• Group should be HOMOGENOUS
• Recruitment can be via:
  • Nomination
  • Random Selection
  • All members of an existing group
  • Drawn from position/title/condition
  • Volunteers when selection criteria are broad

To elicit participation:

• Mail/email written confirmations with

date/time

• Over-invite to anticipate no-shows
• Provide incentives: $50 for general

population, up to $250 for specialised professional recruitment (eg physicians)

Conducting the Focus Group

• Have not more than 12 questions; aim for 90 minutes at most.
• The focus group moderator has a responsibility to adequately cover all prepared questions within the time allotted. S/he also has a responsibility to get all participants to talk and fully explain their answers. Some helpful probes include: ”“Can you talk about that more?”” ”“Help me understand what you mean.”” “Can you give an example?””
• A moderator must tactfully deal with difficult participants, eg those who dominate, ramble, are quiet, etc.

Data Analysis

• Goal is to SYNTHESISE data across the responses for different participants in different groups.
• This is accomplished by uncovering themes via analysis of transcript.
• “Themes” are most obviously recurring words uttered by members in response to specific questions but can also be latent concepts as understood by the analyst.