FOCUS GROUP

FOCUS GROUP

1. DEFINITION

   • A focus group is a carefully planned and moderated informal discussion where one person’s ideas bounce off another’s creating a chain reaction of informative dialogue
   • PURPOSE
     •    Its purpose is to address a specific topic, in depth, in a comfortable environment to elicit a wide range of opinions, attitudes, feelings or perceptions from a group of individuals who share some common experience relative to the dimension under study.   
     • THE PRODUCT
       •    The product of a focus group is a unique form of qualitative information which brings understanding about how people react to an experience or product.   
       • SITUATION
         • It is within such a situation that participants may recall details of their own experiences, release their own inhibitions and feel comfortable about contributing their own comments, and responding to comments made by other members of the group in supportive or critical ways. Consequently, the intention is that the discussion will be richer, deeper and more honest and incisive than any interview with a single participant could produce. 
         • SUMMARISES THE BENEFITS
           •    summarises the benefits from the participant interactions which focus-group interviews encourage as the five ‘S’s.   
           • the five ‘S’s.
             • Security
               •    The security of a focus group interview encourages group members to express their opinions more freely, especially if they find he or she share similar opinions, or if the group members are relatively shy or lacking in confidence.   
             • Snowballing
               •    Snowballing is a situation in which a comment by one participant triggers a chain of responses from others which in turn generates new ideas and topics for discussion.   
             • Synergism
               •    Synergism is a cumulative process in which individual participants react to, and build upon, the responses of other group members. The resulting combined group effort may produce a wider range of information, insight and ideas than that likely to be revealed by any single member of the group in a one-to-one inter- view.   
             • Spontaneity
               •    The spontaneity of a focus-group interview refers to the fact that no individual is obliged to have a particular view or opinion about a topic and to express that view to the rest of the group, so when a participant chooses to speak in a focus-group interview it is likely to be because he or she holds a strong opinion about a subject, or agrees or disagrees emphatically with another’s comments.   
             • Stimulation
               •    Stimulation is a situation in which the group setting works to spur members on to express their own ideas.