How to Run a Focus Group

The script will include the importance of the focus group, who will be attending and the roles and responsibilities of participants. The script will also convey what refreshments will be offered and the incentive each participant will receive for participating in the focus group.

After the focus group, the moderator will tell the individuals what the purpose of the focus group was for. After we have collected, analysed, and drawn conclusions, we will send those to the chapters and/or meet with them to discuss not only our findings on why members stay, even during conflict they do not agree with, but also what solutions their members have to address and solve the intragroup conflict that is hindering their

Focus group is a group interview. The group is made up of people with the same characteristics and ask them questions about something or someone. The response they give will be recorded and use as reference when making a decision.

Focus groups are a method of group interviewing in which the interaction between the moderator and the group, as well as the interaction between group members, serves to elicit information and insights in response to carefully designed questions. The dynamic nature of the questions asked by the moderator and the group process, produces a level of insight that is rarely derived from 'unidirectional ' information collection devises such as observation, surveys and less interactional interview techniques. Methods of recording and analyzing information gathered during focus groups, and strategies for collecting unbiased information have helped focus group research to gain

A qualitative focus group provides a mean to collect qualitative information on a target population through the process of conducting rapport style interview (Carlsen & Glenton, 2011; Cohen & Crabtree, 2006). There are several advantages to a focus group. As it allows the researcher to obtain new research information, discover sensitive subject matters that would otherwise be overlooked, find subthemes to categorized their main research topics, and provides a quick turnaround time to gather up research information (Cohen & Crabtree, 2006; Laureate Education, 2014b). The disadvantage of focus group like the one viewed in the video, it does not give all members of the group an equal amount of time to express their concern or rationales. Such will require additional strategies to engage the 'quiet ones ' to yield their ‘voices’ by directing questions towards them to answer (Laureate Education, 2014b). Another disadvantage is that if the moderator does not conduct the focus group appropriately, it can quickly get off topic and lose focus (Laureate Education, 2014b).

Focus groups and surveys are particularly useful in gathering information on how a vast group of people feel about a particular service or product. “The method is particularly useful for exploring people 's knowledge and experiences and can be used to examine not only what people think but how they think and why they think that way” (Kitzinger, 1995, pp. 299). Along with giving insight into those feelings, this method can help to improve the design or implementation of how that product or service is perceived by the public. In general, focus groups are composed of five to ten individuals with similar characteristics relating to the topic of interest. Focus groups can give insightful data on the participants being interviewed; however,

Focus groups are a form of group interview that make use of the communication between research participants in order to produce data. Group interviews are mostly used as a quick and easy way to collect data from several people at the same time and focus groups explicitly use group interaction as part of the method. This means that the researcher doesn’t just ask each person to respond to a question in turn, but people are encouraged to talk to one another: asking questions, exchanging stories and commenting on each other's experiences and points of view. The method is mainly useful for exploring people's knowledge and experiences and can be used to study not only what people think but how they think and why they think that way.

The focus group was done on Monday, April 25, 2011 at around 8pm. The focus group was comprised of 6 volunteers who were both female and in the college. The focus group was a diverse group of young women from all different heritages and backgrounds. The women were all between the ages of 18-21, and ranged from freshman to seniors at Towson University. They were all of different races from Caucasian to Hispanic, as well as, Christians and Jews.

Focus groups have been renowned for its inherently complex data analysis. It requires an experienced researcher to identify the themes that have emerged throughout the discussions, to ensure no bias tailoring has been made to support theoretical assumptions.

The three focus groups will allow people to feel empowered and express their opinions freely, and participants will be able to query one another and explain their answers amongst the group. (Neuman et al, 2012) They will be held in three different locations throughout the city and three different research team members will facilitate based on their personality traits, and a pretest will be employed prior to the sessions. (Masadeh, 2012) The focus groups will host a diverse group of individual volunteers and will be advertised throughout Toronto and in varying institutions, workplaces, and hubs to ensure this. This group will comprise six to twelve people, depending on the response rate. Focus groups can have limitations such as: the possibility if groupthink, existing polarization effects, the effects of the moderator, time consuming and few topics can be

A focus group instrument is used when it is well suited to the subject matter in question by listening to the opinions of others in a small and safe group setting before they form thoughts and opinions. An A typical focus group is between 6-12 homogeneous people who share similar characteristics or common interests. Focus groups generally reveal what each person within the group truly feels on the subject which provides credibility to the study. The facilitator is key to promoting an accepting environment where the participants can speak freely without judgment allowing them to answer each question in their own words and acerbate on each answer. Surveys are good for collecting information about people’s attributes and attitudes but if you need to understand things at a deeper level then use a focus group. The facilitator’s goal is to generate as many and diverse opinions from as many different people in the time allotted. Although the discussion is free flowing, the facilitator follows a carefully structured list of predetermined questions that specifically satisfy the purpose of the subject matter (Christiansen, Johnson, & Turner, 2014). Ideally, participant comments will stimulate and influence the thinking and sharing of others. Some people even find themselves changing their thoughts and opinions during the group.

The focus group interviews used a semi-structured design. Each focus group lasted 90 to 120 minutes. Focus group participants were asked to commit to

“A focus group is a common qualitative research method used by companies for marketing purposes. A focus group typically consists of a small number of participants, usually around six to twelve, from within a company 's target market. The consumers are brought together and led through discussions of important company and brand topics by a moderator.” (SmallBusiness, n.d.) Researchers will usually design the focus group based on the research question. There are four main characteristics researchers consider when designing focus groups:

• A carefully planned discussion conducted by a trained interviewer (moderator, facilitator) in a permissive, non-threatening environment . • Composed by a small group of ideally seven to ten people with common characteristics relating to discussion topic. • Used for generating data to enable the comprehension of a specific topic under study. • The open-ended interaction of focus groups stimulates thoughts and emotions which are not ordinarily forthcoming in an individual interview, or through the examination of how people behave.

A focus group is “a carefully planned discussion designed to obtain perceptions on a defined area of interest in a permissive, non- threatening environment” (Krueger, 1944, p.6).