The Strengths and Weaknesses of Focus Group Research

A focus group can be defined as a group interview- centered on a specific topic and facilitated and co-ordinated by a moderator or facilitator- which seeks to generate primarily qualitative data, by capitalizing on the interaction that occurs within the group setting. The idea behind the focus group method is that group processes can help people to explore and clarify their views in ways that be less easily accessible in a one to one interview. While the focus group opens up exciting analytical possibilities, it also gives rise to a number of potentially problematic issues in this respect.

Facilitating focus groups, interviews, allowed us to strengthen our qualitative research skills. As an outsider, the qualitative process was the most enjoyable to me. I was able to learn their way of living, strengths and challenges of their community. The process of creating the pretest and posttest surveys collectively was a challenge, yet another beneficially learning experience. I realized effective surveys take time to develop and need to be reviewed by multiple people. Developing poorly constructed questionaries’ is highly possible if no one takes the time to actually

Focus groups can be an excellent way to collect data and be able to identify if the interventions have an effect on the clients (Stringer, 2007). I’m interested

Flexible and inexpensive, focus groups consist of six to ten participants (Hartman, 2004, p. 408). Additionally, a moderator guides the discussion among its panel members that allows researchers to observe real-time verbal responses and nonverbal cues (Hartman, 2004, p. 402; Cooper & Schindler, 2014, p. 160). Focus groups moderators also have the ability to introduce new ideas to gain a greater understanding of concerns from respondents (Hartman, 2004, p. 402). However, a concern with focus group is the lack of anonymity due to the face-to-face participation.

This article represents a focus group type of qualitative research. According to Qualitative Research Consultants Association (2015), in focus group qualitative research, a group of individuals who share a need, life circumstance, or habit relevant to the research issue(s) at hand are led in a discussion by a modulator. The focus group discussions often include between two to ten respondents, and are often held face to face. They can also be conducted remotely through videoconferencing, teleconferencing, or

In order to gather a lot of data, a focus group is recommended. According to Howitt D. (2013), an optimal focus group consists of six to ten participants (Howitt, 2013; Morgan, 1997). The fact that an experienced interviewer conducted the interview led to good control and desired data(Morgan, 1996). Furthermore, a thematic analysis provided a systematic overview of the results.

Each interview and focus group audio was transcribed within 24 hours by a research assistant. Data analysis was conducted using the Statistical package for social science to analyze the data set collected from the

Jemma, the researcher and focus group moderator, has structured the discussion in the following way: to start with, Jemma provides a frame of reference for the focus group referring to the aim of her research, and summarizes the pre-formulated research questions that serve as openings to obtain such feedback (Nel, Romm, & Tlale, 2015). Focus groups are seen as providing a unique data source, and tend to emphasise their value in exploring participants’ knowledge and experiences and in helping to understand not only what people think, but also why they think the way they do (Greenwood, Ellmers, & Holley, 2014).

The video if part four of a six part series published by the University of Derby, known as, Advanced Qualitative Methods, created to inform students of the advantages and drawbacks of conducting a focus group. The video features, Fiona Holland, Senior Lecturer Psychology, and James Elander, Head of Center for Psychological Research, both from the University of Derby, representing both the benefits and limitations of focus groups. The main benefits of focus groups are the amount of data collected at one time compared to an individual interview, and the ability to compare results from different demographic groups. The limitations

The researcher felt that was the nature of focus group but to a larger degree a behavior of human nature, especially in groups where the participants know each other and work together. Therefore to head off a loss of control of the groups the participants were asked to rate topics that were popular in similar focus groups (Levy, Mandell and Schultz 2009; Pellicano et al. 2014). The strategy was used to integrate the topics into the focus groups that participants

Thank you for your participation. Your participation is voluntary and the statements made in the focus group interview have no relationship to or influence on your current or future study or your work and responsibilities. Your participation in this study will be kept confidential by the researcher.

Although Berg and Lune (2012) cite Barbour (2008) who states that focus groups are small groups of unrelated individuals, I personally tend to side with Schein who states, "If you want to access your organization's culture, bring together a group of employees who represent the parts of the organization that may be most involved with solving the business problem...” (2009, p. 82). By its very term, a focus group focuses on something. I believe that in ethnographic studies, the "something” is the culture or microculture which relates the participants to each other. Focus groups allow the researcher to obtain large amounts of data in a short amount of time. With a good moderator of the focus group, the researcher should be able to discover

One of the factors to consider is to ensure that the people being involved in the focus group have a common background and that they have comparable experiences in terms of investment or money spending activities. This is very important since there should exist no conflict among the members in a focus group. The other factor to consider relates to the questions that the moderator needs to ask the focus group members. The questions must be formulated carefully prior to meeting the focus group. The moderator of focus group must have prepared the questions in advance by considering the background and the experiences that are common to the members in the focus group. This will help in getting the intended information which will be helpful in establishing relationships among the various variables. Further, the other factor

There is a criterion that has been designed towards showing that the technical communication was delivering the intended message. One factor to focus upon was the outcome of the communication process. The result is expected to be positive and result into unity achieved by the groups represented within the audience. Focus groups also involve face to face communication which gives room for discussion and also coming into an agreement. Focus groups allow both the audience and the speaker to engage in an interactive and thus allowing them to come into a common boat of thoughts. The audience may also be divided into their specifics groups and their issues addressed accordingly. This technical communication will therefore ensure the communication reaches all the targeted audience and therefore termed as effective (Rajendra,

There are advantages and disadvantages to using focus groups. Advantages are that focus groups can be used to collect in-depth information about delicate subject matters in the efforts to develop health services, health interventions, or to improve care. Focus groups can also encourage participants that would be silent to voice their opinions. Another advantage of focus groups leads to some “hidden” or “unexpected” information that may be very valuable and have major implications for developing health programs that are appropriate to the target population (Focus Groups, pg. 91). Disadvantages of focus groups include: 1) prevalence cannot be stated; focus groups give details about the variety of views only and 2) since focus groups use a