Psychological Research I (Draft 2)
Methods of data collection
Focus group discussion (FGD)
Focus groups are a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about
their attitude and/or feelings towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, or idea.
Or
Small groups of people who participate together in interviews focused on a particular topic
or issue are often referred to as focus groups.
Or
Focus groups are a collection of people who meet together with the investigator to discuss
some topic or issue.
Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk
with other group members.The idea of a focus group is to bring together a group of
individuals with a common interest and to conduct a form of collective interview. There is a
moderator who leads the discussion in a free and open manner. This moderator or facilitator
must be well trained. Though not providing much in the way of quantifiable data, such
groups can provide valuable insights into a topic and may also provide a starting point for
research into a specific area.The interaction among participants in a focus group can
sometimes bring out more information than can be learned in a one-on-one interview. The
use of focus groups has become a standard technique in business and industry among those
who want to understand consumer tastes and preferences. The content of all focus group
interviews is usually recorded and tranribed to facilitate later analyses. However, we know
from social psychology that group dynamics are often at play in any group, including focus
groups, and it is useful to be aware of those possibilities.
*The key characteristic which distinguishes focus groups from interviews is the insight and
data produced by the interaction between participants.
Focus groups originated in the work of the famous sociologistsRobert Mertonand
Paul Lazarsfeld when they researched the effectiveness of propaganda using a method
Merton termed focused interviewing (Merton and Kendall, 1946). It emerged as an
alternative to questionnaires in the 1930s over concerns that surveys fostered passive
responses or failed to capture people’s authentic perspectives.In sub sequent decades it was
taken up by advertising and market researchers with the help of consultants, like Austrian-
born psychologist Ernest Dichter who first coined the term focus group, until eventually
becoming more accepted in academic research. Focus groups allowed the researcher to
concentrate on matters which market research interviews fail to assess adequately.In recent
years, researchers have increasingly regarded focus groups as a means of generating ideas
and understanding, especially for new research topics, perhaps prior to another more
quantitative approach.
One of the goals is to examine people’s attitudes and behaviors. The other goal is to
find out what each participant thinks about the topic under discussion. The opinions and
descriptions are elicited from the respondents. Through the discussions, the researcher
hopes to be able to discover important insights that can be used later to solve problems
(Kerlinger, p.,700).
Examples –
For example, if a manufacturer is looking to develop a new product, the information
coming from focus groups could give insights as to what should go into that product
in terms of manufacturing and marketing.
Mays et al. (1992) used a focus group involving African American gay males. The
topic under discussion was sexual behavior and HIV. Using this method, Mays et al.
were able to create a gay vernacular list for African American males. These results
are useful in comparing African American and white American gay males, and also in
the construction of questionnaires designed to tap sexual behavior of African
American gay males.
In order to organise focus group research effectively, the following need some
consideration:
Allow up to about two hours running time for a focus group. Short running times may
indicate an unsatisfactory methodology.
A single focus group is rarely if ever sufficient even if the group seems very
productive in terms of ideas and discussion. The researcher will need to run several
groups in order to ensure that a good range of viewpoints has been covered.
The size of a focus group is important. If there are too many participants some will be
inhibited from talking or unable to find the opportunity to participate; too few and
the stimulation of a limited range of viewpoints will risk stultifying the proceedings.
Generally, it appears that the ideal is six to ten individuals, though this is not a rule.
Don’t tell focus group members too much in advance of the meeting. If you do there
is a risk that they will figure out their own particular thoughts and attitudes on the
topic of the focus group and, consequently, they may be unresponsive to the input of
others in the group.
Unless there is a very good reason for doing otherwise, ensure that the focus group
members are strangers to each other prior to the meeting.
Focus group members should generally be varied (heterogeneous) in terms of
obvious factors. That is, they should vary in educational level, race and
ethnicity,gender and social economic status. However, it should be appreciated that
some of these factors in some circumstances may be inhibitory. For example, a
discussion of race may be affected by having different races present.
Refreshments can be provided as a gesture of appreciation to the participants who
had taken their valuable time-off.
The tasks of the focus group moderator include (Gibbs, 1997):
explaining the purpose and objectives of the focus group session;
creating a positive experience for the group members and making them feel comfort
able in the situation;
prompting discussion by posing questions that may open up the debate or by
focusing on an issue;
enabling participation by all members of the group;
highlighting differences in perspective between people so that they are encouraged
to engage in the nature of this difference in the discussion;
stopping conversational drifts from the point of the topic of the focus group.
*Apart from the moderator, another experimenter (assistant moderator) takes Field notes.
Among the characteristics required of the focus group moderator are:
the ability not to appear judgemental;
the ability to keep their personal opinions to themselves.
First steps with Focus Group studies
1. Decide whether focus groups are appropriate
2. Decide who to involve
3. Listen to your target audience
4. Put your thoughts in writing
5. Analyzing the data
Advantages of FGD(Kerlinger, p., 700)
One of the advantages of focus groups is in their cost. It costs very little to do a focus
group. The major costs would be the recruiting and pay for the moderator.
The focus group is also quick to do. The ideas of the respondents are available very
quickly and video-taping of the sessions can be done for further analysis at a later
date.
The focus group is very good at generating hypotheses for further research.
And, the focus groups are very flexible. An experienced moderator can direct, but yet
let promising ideas flow.
Limitations of FGD(Kerlinger, p., 700)
The focus group, however, is not very good in producing concrete information.
With the use of very small groups, the focus group data suffers from generalizability.
Unlike structured survey research, the focus group does not expend a great deal of
effort in making certain the group is representative.
As with any group dynamics, there will be a few individuals who will dominate the
conversation. The moderator needs to have sufficient experience to minimize this
without shutting down the flow of communication.
Focus group interviewing takes a lot of patience and skill.
Some participants take the focus group as an opportunity to vent their emotions.
Flence, topics that are sensitive should not be explored using focus groups.
Summery points
Focus group research involves organised discussion with a selected group of
individuals to gain information about their views and experiences of a topic.
Focus group interviewing is particularly suited for obtaining several perspectives
about the same topic.
The benefits of focus group research include gaining insights into people’s shared
understandings of everyday life and the ways in which individuals are influenced by
others in a group situation.
Problems arise when attempting to identify the individual view from the group view,
as well as in the practical arrangements for conducting focus groups.
The role of the moderator is very significant. Good levels of group leadership and
interpersonal skill are required to moderate a group successfully.
Analysis of focus group data*
The analysis of focus group data may follow a number of routes. The route chosen will
largely be dependent on why the focus group approach was selected for data collection.If
the focus group is largely to generate ideas for further research or as a preliminary to more
structured research, the researcher may be satisfied simply by listing the major and
significant themes emerging in the focus group discussions. On the other hand, the focus
group may have served as a means of generating verbal data for detailed textual analysis of
some sort. Detailed data analysis of this sort requires transcriptions to be made of the group
discussion from the audio or video-recording.Appropriately transcribed data may be
analysed using the broad principles of grounded theory, discourse analysis or conversation
analysis in particular. Of these, grounded theory analysis may suit more researchers than the
other more specific approaches. In other words, the analysis, as ever, needs to be tailored to
the purpose of the research.
Content analysis is a research tool used to determine the presence of certain words,
themes, or concepts within some given qualitative data (i.e. text). Using content
analysis, researchers can quantify and analyze the presence, meanings, and
relationships of such certain words, themes, or concepts.
Discourse analysis is a field of qualitative analysis that has its origins in disciplines
such as linguistics, philosophy, psychology, anthropology. It is an interdisciplinary field
that deals with ‘language’ and meaning.Discourse analysis is the study of texts such
as transcribed interviews, websites, forums, books, newspapers, government
documents (and many more), and the analysis of those texts to understand different
accounts and the meanings behind those accounts.
Thematic analysis is a research method used to identify and interpret patterns or
themes in a data set; it often leads to new insights and understanding (Boyatzis,
1998).
References –
Kerlinger, F. N. (2000). Foundations of Behavioral Research. San Diego, CA: Harcourt College
Publishers.
Howitt, D. and Cramer, D. (2010) Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology. 3rd
Edition, Prentice Hall, London.
Coolican, H. (2018). Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology (7th ed.). Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315201009
