Focus groups

Focus groups

1. Definition

   • Qualitative method
   • Used to gather rich, descriptive data in a small- group format from participants who have agreed to ‘focus’ on a topic of mutual interest.
   • Understanding participants’ experiences, interests, attitudes, perspectives and assumptions
   • Carefully planned and moderated informal discussion

2. Purposes

   • To gather insight to, or raise awareness of, an issue or topic
   • To uncover complex motivations, attitudes or behaviours
   • To stimulate new ideas and creative concepts
   • To learn how respondents talk in their own words about your focus of interest

3. Procedure

   • Establishing your focus group
     • It need not contain a fixed number of participants
     • Nor does there need to be a fixed number of groups
     • The participants have strong opinions most likely from personal experience about the topic or issue
     • Participants who are strangers to one another but share similar qualities
   • Developing your questions
     • Each question can lead to a substantial amount of discussion and debate
     • Begin with a brainstorming session
     • ‘which of these questions are the most important and which will my possible participants be able to answer?’
     • Reduce and refine them
   • Conducting your focus group
     • The moderator ensures the meeting is a successful
     • Encourage the participants to be enthusiastic contributors to the discussion.
     • Record each interview
     • Take detailed notes throughout each session
   • Analysing your data
     • Transcribe the tapes
     • Read all your summaries and transcripts
     • Organize the data in terms of the themes, patterns and trends
     • Organise your categories into subcategories and arrange them in order of importance
     • Select and edit actual quotations to illustrate your emerging themes

4. Advantages

   • All participants have equal access to the discussion
   • There are no restrictions on who may speak, how often and for how long
   • Participants do not have to wait for their turn to speak or be given permission
   • Benefits from the participant interactions
     • synergism
     • snowballing
     • stimulation
     • security
     • spontaneity

5. Uses

   • In market research
     • To evaluate consumers’ opinions of products and services
   • Consumers of education, health and community programmes and services
   • Parents’ support for new school facilities
   • Patients’ levels of satisfac- tion with their treatment at their local hospital
   • Pensioners’ thoughts on the quality of their local civic amenities