Victoria Yates WednesdayJul 6 at 9:08pmManage Discussion Entry Using Sage Research Methods database, find three articles or books about focus groups. First article/book Stewart, D. W., Shamdasani, P....

Victoria Yates

UsingSage Research Methodsdatabase, find three articles or books about focus groups.

First article/book

Stewart, D. W., Shamdasani, P. N., & Rook, D. W. (2007). Introduction: focus group history, theory, and practice. InFocus groups(pp. 1-17). SAGE Publications, Ltd.,https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412991841.d3(Links to an external site.)

Among the most widely used research tools in the social sciences are group depth interviews, or focus groups. Originally called “focussed” interviews (Merton & Kendall, 1946), this technique came into vogue after World War II and has been a part of the social scientist's tool kit ever since. Focus groups emerged in behavioral science research as a distinctive member of the qualitative research family, which also includes individual depth interviewing, ethnographic participant observation, and projective methods, among others. Like its qualitative siblings, the popularity and status of focus groups among behavioral researchers has ebbed and flowed over the years, with distinctive patterns in particular fields. For example, in qualitative marketing studies, the use of focus groups has grown steadily since the 1970s, and today, business expenditures on focus groups are estimated to account for at least 80% of the $1.1 billion spent annually on qualitative research (Wellner, 2003). Also, focus groups no longer solely involve small research projects that rely on two or three groups. Airbus, for example, conducted over 100 focus groups all over the world to assist the development of its new superjumbo jet (Emerson, 2000).

In sociology, arguably the first field to embrace group research, qualitative research flourished through the 1950s, faded away in the 1960s and 1970s, and reemerged in the 1980s. Various patterns of focus group ascendance, decline, and revival characterize other fields, yet it seems reasonable to conclude that focus group research has never enjoyed such widespread usage across an array of behavioral science disciplines and subfields as it does today.

The diversity of research purposes, theories, and procedures that characterize the behavioral sciences suggests that focus groups will materialize differently in different fields. This, in fact, is the case, and it speaks to the versatility and productivity of focus group research. What is problematic with focus group research today, as anthropologist Grant McCracken observes, is an intellectual climate that reflects “substantially more concern with practice than theory” (1988, p. 15). This is particularly the case in marketing research, where dozens of articles and books tend to emphasize the do's and don'ts surrounding the myriad of executional details involving recruiting participants, preparing discussion guides, selecting moderators, blocking time slots, inviting observers, ordering food, analyzing data, and preparing reports. As Rook (2003) recently observed, the stage management aspects of focus groups often preoccupy researchers to the extent that more basic issues are barely considered. In practice, researchers rarely step back to ask why they want to conduct research with groups rather than individuals, and why in a mirrored room instead of a natural setting? Answers to these and other questions can be found in closer examination of the nature and conduct of focus groups within the behavioral science disciplines from which they emerged.

Second book

Stewart, D. W., Shamdasani, P. N., & Rook, D. W. (2007). Group dynamics and focus group research. InFocus groups(pp. 19-36). SAGE Publications, Ltd.,https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412991841.d10(Links to an external site.)

Focus groups are inherently social phenomena, and it is important to understand the complex and dynamic social context in which group interviewing takes place (Hollander, 2004). A primary difference between focus group research and other types of research such as surveys, individual interviews, and laboratory experiments is that data collection occurs in, and is facilitated by, a group setting. Over the years, much theoretical and empirical research has focused on the behavior of groups and the interactions among people in groups (see Levine & Moreland, 1998, and Snyder & Cantor, 1998, for comprehensive reviews of this literature). This chapter is designed to summarize this knowledge in a way that will place focus group research within a grounded theoretical context and, in turn, aid in the design of valid and more useful focus groups. By understanding the physical, temporal, social, cultural, psychological, and environmental influences on the dynamics of group behavior, we are better able to identify the nature and degree of bias in our analysis and interpretation of focus group data. In general, the usefulness and validity of focus group data are affected by the extent to which participants feel comfortable about openly communicating their ideas, views, or opinions. The wealth of literature on group dynamics suggests that there are many variables that influence participants’ “comfort zones.” These influences can be grouped into three broad categories: intrapersonal factors and individual differences, interpersonal factors, and environmental factors.

Third book

Barbour, R. (2007). Introducing focus groups. InDoing focus groups(pp. 1-14). SAGE Publications Ltd, https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781849208956.n1

Definition of a focus group

This has resulted in confusion even with regard to the definition of what constitutes a focus group, with the terms ‘group interview’, ‘focus group interview’ and ‘focus group discussions’ sometimes being used interchangeably. One of the earliest and most frequently cited texts (Frey and Fontana, 1993) uses the term ‘group interviews’ but describes an approach that is more commonly referred to as ‘focus group discussions’, relying on generating and analyzing interaction between participants, rather than asking the same question (or list of questions) to each group participant in turn, which would be the approach favoured by what is more commonly referred to as the ‘group interview’. Appearing most frequently in grant applications and practice-focused journals, ‘focus group interview’ is an intriguing hybrid term and suggests, at least to me, that the object of the exercise is to interview a group, which is seen as holding a consensus view, rather than the process of creating this consensus via interaction in a ‘focus group discussion’. There is, as always, a danger of being swamped by these conflicting definitions when talking about a remarkably similar research process. The definition that I wish to apply is suitably broad to encompass all of the aforementioned usages: ‘Any group discussion may be called a focus group as long as the researcher is actively encouraging of, and attentive to, the group interaction’ (Kitzinger and Barbour, 1999, p. 20).

Being actively encouraging of group interaction relates, most obviously, to running the focus group discussion and ensuring that participants talk amongst themselves rather than interacting only with the researcher, or ‘moderator’. However, it also relates to the preparation required in developing a topic guide and selecting stimulus material that will encourage interaction, as well as decisions made with regard to group composition, in order to ensure that participants will have enough in common with each other to make discussion seem appropriate, yet have sufficiently varying experiences or perspectives in order to allow for some debate or differences of opinion. Likewise, although being attentive to group interaction refers to the process of moderating discussions, with the researcher picking up on differences in views or emphasis of participants and exploring these, it also relates to the importance of paying attention to group interaction: to group dynamics and to the activities engaged in by the group - whether this be forming a consensus, developing an explanatory framework, interpreting health promotion messages, or weighing up competing priorities. Later chapters in this book are concerned with providing advice on all of these aspects of research design, the running of focus groups and analyzing the data generated.

How might focus groups be used for data collection in a qualitative study?

Like it states inDos Santos Marques IC, Theiss LM, Johnson CY, McLin E, Ruf BA, Vickers SM, Fouad MN, Scarinci IC, Chu DI. Implementation of virtual focus groups for qualitative data collection in a global pandemic.

• Focus groups are an important part of qualitative research and is a well-established method for collecting data to explore participants’ opinions, experiences, and perspectives. 5 The hallmark of focus groups is to produce data and insights from a group interaction that would be less pronounced in an interview setting.

References:

Barbour, R. (2007). Introducing focus groups. InDoing focus groups(pp. 1-14). SAGE Publications Ltd,https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781849208956.n1(Links to an external site.)

Dos Santos Marques IC, Theiss LM, Johnson CY, McLin E, Ruf BA, Vickers SM, Fouad MN, Scarinci IC, Chu DI. Implementation of virtual focus groups for qualitative data collection in a global pandemic. Am J Surg. 2021 May;221(5):918-922. doi: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2020.10.009. Epub 2020 Oct 12. PMID: 33070983; PMCID: PMC7550163.

Stewart, D. W., Shamdasani, P. N., & Rook, D. W. (2007). Introduction: focus group history, theory, and practice. InFocus groups(pp. 1-17). SAGE Publications, Ltd.,https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412991841.d3(Links to an external site.)

Stewart, D. W., Shamdasani, P. N., & Rook, D. W. (2007). Group dynamics and focus group research. In

Focus groups

(pp. 19-36). SAGE Publications, Ltd., https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412991841.d10

Paulette Morris

Marcus, you have shared some very insightful information as to how focus groups can be used in research. You mentioned the ability to raise new ideas and gain insight into a topic. This is truly one way that researchers can make use of focus groups for research studies.Focus groups remain to be an insightful approach used in qualitative research to explore the views of individuals and how these views are shaped by their social interactions. Focus groups are an excellent tool for gathering the views and experiences of groups of individuals and offering the participating individuals more control over their interactions (Trotter & Landstad, 2020). The focus group study commences with collecting pre-circulated demographic data by means of a questionnaire and then the researcher presents the participants with the main topic to be discussed. The researcher provides the rules for participation and explains the ethical issues that the process entails (Creswell & Poth, 2017 & Trotter & Landstad, 2020). A focus group can be used as a single method in qualitative research to obtain data on group norms, develop meaning, and understand processes. Researchers can use focus groups to get data in a multi-method research design when exploring specific topics (Creswell & Poth, 2017). A focus group is used for collecting the narratives of a group that is integrated into the later phase of the research.

Focus groups can be used for clarifying, extending, qualifying, and challenging the data collected using other research methods. The focus group can be used to gather the data necessary for providing the participant's feedback on the study results. Focus groups are employed in qualitative research to obtain the opinions, beliefs, or ideas of various individuals pertaining to the topic being studied (Creswell & Poth, 2017 & Trotter & Landstad, 2020). Researchers can implement a focus group into their research study for data collection that is centered around the ideas and thoughts of others. When conducting case studies, researchers employ focus groups in their methods within the design to collect data that depicts the understanding of the experiences of the individuals being studied (Creswell & Poth, 2017). The researcher employs a focus group to gather the data from a broader perspective and when seeking to uncover the unknown about a topic or issue that cannot be answered with other research methods.

Do you see yourself potentially using a focus group to find new insight into the topic you are discussing in your research?

References

Creswell. J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2017).Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed).
https://redshelf.com(Links to an external site.)

Tritter, J. Q., & Landstad, B. J. (2020). Focus groups.Qualitative research in health care, 57-66.

Renalta Smith

Focus groups get used to collect data from a small group of people, usually restricted to 6-10. A Focus group brings together people who are experts in the subject matter for which research is being conducted. The first article was Analyzing Focus Groups on Politics with Young People in Wales, which demonstrated that focus groups could be helpful to as data collection, similar to an interview (Pearce, 2017). The article showed several focus groups where questions got asked, and the participants responded. Another report called Introduction:

Focus Group History, Theory, and Practice focused on how the focus group is the most used research tool in social science and is more diverse, which means that in studying the focus group practice across several fields, researchers can observe how group research formats and approaches vary according to the core issues that distinguish a particular field (Stewart, 2007). The article titled Recruiting Focus Group Participants and Designing the Interview Guide talked about how focus groups get operated to collect specific information which can be useful in a qualitative study. Focus groups have individuals who must consent to participate, just like any other study. The focus group uses an interview guide which could be helpful in a study in collecting information. Many focus groups get set for a limited amount of time.

Thanks,

Renalta

References

Pearce, S. (2017). Analyzing focus groups on politics with young people in wales. InSAGE Research Methods Datasets Part 1. SAGE Publications, Ltd.https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781473999220(Links to an external site.)

Stewart, D. W., Shamdasani, P. N., & Rook, D. W. (2007). Introduction: focus group history, theory, and practice. InFocus groups(pp. 1-17). SAGE Publications, Ltd.,https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412991841.d3(Links to an external site.)

Stewart, D. W., Shamdasani, P. N., & Rook, D. W. (2007). Recruiting focus group participants and designing the interview guide. InFocus groups(pp. 51-68). SAGE Publications, Ltd., https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412991841.d22