RESEARCH METHODS

Focus Group

WHAT IS IT?

Focus group involves the discussion and interaction of a group of purposively sampled participants on a designated topic.
Facilitator or moderator provides the topic or questions for reflection and discussion.
It aims to capture participants’ perceptions, meanings, beliefs and attitudes in relation to social issues or social phenomena.
Researcher needs to consider the context and participants’ different social positions when conducting group discussions.
It uses open-ended questions to seek rich and detailed data.

Advantages & Disadvantages

Save Time

Researcher can capture extensive views from a representative sample within just one focus group session. Comparing with individual in-depth interview, extensive, useful data from multiple participants could be collected within a much shorter period of time.

Group dynamics and interaction

The group dynamics produced by social interaction and communication between group members is useful: When members challenge, complement, support, disagree or agree with the ideas of others in the group, this can be used to “cross check” the validity of data obtained.

Suppression of minority opinion

Group dynamic may sometimes subtly impose consensus (Morgan and Krueger, 1998), which suppresses the voice of minority or exceptional opinions.

Problem of confidentiality

Focus group may not be best method to research sensitive or even taboo issues.

Group Composition

The group composition can critically affect the group dynamics and outcome of a focus group. How to form a group has to be considered in relation to the research topic.
Once a focus group session has started, it is difficult to control and change its dynamics is hardly controlled and altered. If group members are incompatible with each other, useful data may not be produced.
Purposeful sampling for making appropriate group composition at the planning stage is a must to partially control the unwanted silence or uncomfortable conflicts of group members.
Participants in a focus group are preferably homogenous in terms of status or power to achieve compatibility, such as educational level, social class, gender, occupation, age, race or ethnicity, marital status, family composition, etc (Morgan and Krueger, 1998 :59).
Power politics or unequal status between group members can lead to the domination of some participants (Carey and Asbury, 2012:42).

RECRUITMENT:
STRANGERS OR ACQUAINTANCES?

Although a group of acquaintances appears to be easier to manage, Morgan (1998) warns that there are several problems when interviewing acquaintances in a group.

Problem of Confidentiality

The presence of acquaintances would limit confidentiality, because the information or opinions share may have later consequences.

Example
Student participants may feel uncomfortable of speaking openly about their discontent of certain school policies in front of other students, because there is a possibility that such comments would be leaked out to teachers or other schoolmates.

Group Size & Number

To produce valid results, it usually involves more than one focus group. The usual number of group varies from 3 to 8, and it depends on your research questions and topic.
A group of 6 to 8 members is a good size to acquire greater depth of data and participants’ engagement. There are situations that a larger group would be more suitable. For instance, a group of 10 to 12 participants may be suitable for a marketing research, which aims to capture as many different opinions as possible in a short period of time.
However, a group larger than 7 or 8 participants is harder to manage (Carey and Asbury, 2012).
Researchers also need to consider the number of questions and the length of the entire discussion for each group. The number of questions or themes to be discussed should not be too much so that each participant has enough speaking time.

Morgan (1998:73-5) has suggested the followings when forming groups of different sizes:

Smaller groups

When participants have a high level of involvement with the topic
When participants are emotionally caught up in the topic
When participants are experts or know a lot about the topic
When the topic is controversial
When the topic is complex
When the goal is to hear detailed stories and personal accounts
When recruitment factors limit other options

Larger groups

When participants have a low level of involvement with the topic
When the goal is to hear numerous brief suggestions, as in brainstorming
When recruitment factors limit other options

Planning Focus Group Session

TIPS:
OVER-RECRUITING PARTICIPANTS

It is possible that research participants will withdraw from the research. Therefore, it is necessary to over-recruit participants, as much as 20% of the original plan (Morgan, 1998). For instance, if the planned focus group is to involve 6-8 members, at least 10 people (i.e. 1 to 2 extra members) should be invited.

METHODS OF RECRUITMENT

(a) Nomination

Ask gate-keepers or key individuals to nominate potential participants that are related to the topic or known for their knowledge/ability to share their opinion on the issues. However, these nominees must agree to participate voluntarily without pressure from the gatekeeper/key individual.

Example
Social workers can nominate disabled individuals to give opinion on the design of infrastructure or the implementation of the ‘Barrier-free’ environment’ policy in the community

TIPS:
CALL
AND CONFIRM

Once the location has been confirmed, you should call or inform each potential participant to confirm their availability and interest. Information provided includes:

Time
Location
Purposes of the focus group
Secure verbal confirmation (if possible)

A written confirmation should be sent and a reminder call should be made to the participants before the scheduled meeting date.

Venue & Time

The venue should be safe and convenient. A convenient location will encourage participants to attend or lower the possibility of sudden withdrawal or absence.
A ‘safe’ location is also important because it encourages focus group participants to express their opinions freely without pressure or worries about harm or consequences.
The venue should be spacious enough to allow participants to sit in a circle of up to 12 people (10 maximum participants and the moderator and assistant moderator), and quiet enough for recording.
The focus group session should be around 45 to 90 minutes long. For a group of 6-8 participants, 30 minutes may be too short to yield enough information. However a discussion over 2 hours would exhaust the participants, and occupy too much of their time.

Designing Focus Group Questions

1.
Engagement

Questions, usually less sensitive or personal and ask at the beginning, which help participants to open up and get into the discussion.

2.
Exploration

Questions which are directly related to the main argument, or require participants to share personal experiences and opinions.

3.
Probing / Follow-up

These questions are often asked when the moderation: (1) does not fully understand a response (whether the answer is ambiguous or short); or (2) realizes some significant or interesting themes/points emerge, and hopes to elicit more in-depth or specific information.
Examples:
“Can you talk about that more?”
“Help me understand what you mean”
“Can you give an example?”

4.
Exit questions

These help to round up the whole group session. Examples: “Is there anything else you would like to say about why you choose this subject as your major?”

Moderation needs to prepare questions to lead the focus group. Normally questions are of four types:

NOTES

1. Be focused and don’t ask too many questions especially when the group is large.
2. Questions should be short and precise.
3. Open-ended questions are always preferred so that in-depth opinions can be obtained.

Role of Moderator

The major goal of the moderator is to maintain the momentum of the discussion process, so that a maximum number of different opinions could be generated from as many different people as possible in the allotted time.

Focus Group Final Check List

FOCUS GROUP PROCESS

AFTER FOCUS GROUP SESSION