Focus group interviewing is a way to design a small group of individuals that are unfamiliar with one another to discuss a specific topic. According Berg and Lune, researchers use this approach to learn through discussion about conscious, semiconscious, and unconscious psychological and sociocultural characteristics and processes amongst various groups (p. 164). Focus groups are useful for collecting data related to specific research. Group interviews are a fast and convenient way to simultaneously collect data. Another method used to collect data is through group interactions. At times, there will be individual interviews to check the validity of findings to design a survey tool. Focus groups are run by a facilitator or a moderator. …show more content…
The atmosphere of these groups is to inspire the participants to freely speak about behaviors, attitudes, and opinions they have, staying on the subject. Group interaction is observed during session because the heart of the data is in group dynamic (p. 160). Focus group interviews provide a means for qualitative data in some settings for situations where a one-shot collection is necessary. One – shot data associates with surveys and questionnaires, in some cases, focus groups may serve the same purpose. A targeted group of interest to social scientists may only be available for a short time. For example, you may want to study homeless women. A female women’s shelter is the only way to gain access to them. Unfortunately, the female may move out of the shelter, leaving the information vague. Individual interviews are not highly recommended for collecting data. Focus group interviews, however, might work well. The text gives suggested populations suitable for focus groups: Prisoners, hospital, clinic, and HMO patients; students and children in special courses; migrant workers, parents at PTA or PTO meetings; and even conventioneers (p. …show more content…
The groups allow the gathering of a large amount of information from a particularly large in a short period of time. They give insight into misunderstood topics from the past. It allows researchers to better understand how members of a group reach conclusions about topics and issues. Focus groups gather information from temporary populations. It places the participants and the investigator on an even field in terms of opinions. The moderator can explore related, but unanticipated topics as they come up in the course of the group’s discussion. Focus groups do not usually require complex sampling strategies
During Week One, the researcher met with the two focus groups to establish a different rapport and provide an explanation of the research study. Although the researcher had previously established a rapport with the students in each group, it was imperative that the students not view the researcher as one of their Assistant Principals while the study was being conducted. Once the researcher gauged the initial feeling tone towards the research project that had been presented to the focus groups, permission forms were sent home with each participant. Lastly, the researcher conducted an informal observation in both classrooms.
n research methods, every researcher uses a procedure or a means of measurement to collect data. For example, three types of basic measurement collection are self-reports, observational, and physiological. Each method has their pros and cons in research. Depending on the research you are conducting these methods of measurement can either guide you to great discovery the pro, or skew your data making it unreliable the con. Observational measure is the method of measuring behaviors by directly observing subjects (Leary, M. R. (2011).
The Focus groups allow participants to discuss self-managing strategies collectively and provide feedback about programs (Jayasekara, 2012). Additionally, individuals learn from each another in the group context (Jayasekara, 2012). The focus group allows individuals who would not participate one-to-one to express views (Green & Thorogood, 2013).
Group interviews were used in a modified nominal group technique (NGT) process to generate and classify ideas that were analyzed by content analysis. This process provides all members with an equal opportunity to participate and for their input to be considered. The article explicitly stated the method of data collection and analysis. The study also had few limitations. Only 50% nurses completed the survey therefore the data may
Focus groups are a good example of a semi-structured interview and are also considered to be a type of qualitative research. Focus groups are usually informal discussions amongst eight or twelve participants. It is unstructured and guided by a researcher to keep the group from on track not to steer away from the primary topic; the researcher also encourages participants to answer questions to the related topic in their own words and to elaborate on their responses. (Joseph et al, 2003, 135) not in the bibliography Our research study will focus on a semi-structured interview approach, where a semi structured questionnaire will be drafted to gather information from the interviewee.
Organizations should consider the idea of starting a focus group
The questions asked in this type of research usually begin with words like 'How ', 'Why", 'What '. So here the researchers are after meaning. The social meanings people attribute to their experiences, circumstances, and situations, as well as the meanings people embed into texts and other objects, are the focus of qualitative research. Therefore, at the heart of their work, qualitative researcher try to extract meaning from their data. The focus is generally words and texts as compared to or opposed to numbers.
Although the term groupthink was first coined by William H. Whyte in an article published in Fortune Magazine (Whyte, 1952), it was the social psychologist Irving Janis who developed the concept and did much of the initial research on this field. In a foundational article from 1971 he defined groupthink as “a quick and easy way to refer to the mode of thinking that persons engage in when concurrence-seeking becomes so dominant in a cohesive ingroup that it tends to override realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action” (Janis, 1971, 43). Indications of groupthink arise when the components of a decision-making group have the tendency to avoid being critical in their judgments of their colleagues´ or leaders´ opinions or ideas; they tend
iii. Normally, this kind of discussion is conducted by a team of moderator and his or her assistant. In this study the researcher was the moderator. The moderator and his assistant welcomed the participants, oriented them to their seats and opened the session. The main role of the moderator was to generate to maximize respondents ‘opinions, thoughts and ideas in due time.
Also wording is a huge part of how questions are designed, even one word can make a big difference in the answers people give. Just like word choice question order is very important and can make people answer differently based on which types of questions are asked first. Pretests, pilot, and focus groups can all be conducted to see how a group will respond to a survey, and this way the researchers can make changes before giving the survey out to
There are several possible pros and cons when working with only the highly educated community members. Highly educated members may be able to understand and follow research methodologies; and possible participate in multiple or more complex research methodologies. They may also be able to function or participate successfully in focus groups, considering the suggestion that “focus groups are more effective when members share similar characteristics” (Rabiee, 2004). The cons associated with working with only highly educated members, may be the potential for conflicts in focus groups, when attempting to share different perspective or opinions.
Micael Sega Written Response #3 CONCEPT QUESTIONS 1) The difference between groups and teams is whether or not they work towards one goal or individual goals. A group is two or more individuals that are connected that work on individual goals. For example, two employees of the same company that work in different sectors.
In today’s world, prisoners are looked down upon in society as terrible people. Though these people committed a crime, it does not mean that they are any different from regular people in society. In fact, prisoners handle stress, work, and making a life for themselves as regular people in society, they just hit a bump in the road in their life. Another way in which prisoners are the same as everyday people is how they act when they have a support group to help them while they handle hassles that they have in their life. Support groups tend to help people handle hassles in their life better than that of the individual handling it by themselves.
Thus, surveys/polls, ethnography and focus groups create new
Research Methods: Interviews & Focus Groups The method used for research of problem statement is interview. Interviews are particularly