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Focus Groups
The focus group is a qualitative research methodology employed to gain rich insight into attitudes and behaviors. Researchers are better equipped to understand and meaningfully explain certain communication phenomena with descriptive data. The term focus group stems from interviewing a purposeful sample, ideally six to eight participants, and focuses on a preselected centralized topic. The focus group method is gaining recognition in the field of communication and is used to comprehend health and organizational communication issues, as well as media effects on consumers.
This entry discusses how to effectively implement the focus group method. It considers what occurs prior to and during the focus group and possible weaknesses of the methodology. First, this entry offers a general description of the focus group and its goals. This entry further examines designing focus group questions and recruitment in relation to the pre-focus group. Next, the entry considers conducting the focus group and how to create a comfortable environment, opening statements, and the facilitator’s role. Finally, potential limitations are discussed in relation to validity, specifically research biases and participant candidness.
Focus Group Description and Goals
The focus group is a method that capitalizes on the discussion generated among participants. The participants are encouraged to not only respond to the moderator but also to the anecdotes conveyed by other participants and to engage in further reflection of personal experiences as others speak. The naturally occurring discourse or spoken words constitutes the data analyzed. These data are considered rich (i.e., descriptive and elaborate) because they go beyond superficial explanations. Instead, the data are representative of genuine attitudes, beliefs, feelings, and the justifications of the perspectives. In a way, the focus group methodology presents researchers with access that other methods cannot.
The main objective of the methodology is to gain perspectives of a particular topic or related multiple topics from a homogeneous group. The goal is not to reach consensus among the participants or to engage in debate but rather for each participant to share his or her perspective in a social environment.
Design Considerations
Structuring the Focus Group Interview
There are several ways to structure the focus group interview, including unstructured (i.e., open or informal), structured, or semistructured. The type of focus group employed depends on the goal of the investigation. The goal is determined by the research question or hypothesis the investigator is seeking to answer and what type of data analysis proceeds data collection.
The unstructured focus group most closely resembles a conversation among participants and the moderator. The moderator has the luxury of asking any question that is relevant to the explored topic because there is no standardized script of interview questions. The unstructured focus group is not recommended if there are multiple focus groups included in the investigation. This type does not allow for comparison of answers because each focus group is exposed to different questions. It does, however, permit the participants to voice their genuine perspective.
Contrary to the open focus group, the structured focus group moderator has a script with a standardized list of questions. The moderator is not allowed to deviate from the script. The sole purpose of the structured interview is for the moderator to ask the predetermined questions in the sequence provided and for the focus group participants to respond. The moderator is discouraged from interpreting responses or asking probing questions that are not included on the script.
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