INSTRUCTIONS

Please read this article before reading the following important details.

PLANNING AND RESEARCH DESIGN FOR FOCUS GROUPS

1. Determining the Types of Participants

    1.1 Sampling Concerns

• In selecting participants for a focus group project, it is often more useful to think in terms of minimizing sample bias rather than achieving generalizability.
• Focus groups are frequently conducted with purposively selected samples in which the participants are recruited from a limited number of sources (often only one).
• The shift away from an emphasis on generalizability also means a shift from random sampling toward theoretically motivated sampling.

    1.2 Homogeneity and Segmentation

• The decision to control the group composition to match carefully chosen categories of participants is known as segmentation.
• The group composition should ensure that the participants in each group both have something to say about the topic and feel comfortable saying it to each other. Try asking whether these participants could easily discuss this topic in normal, day-to-day interaction. Participants must feel able to talk to each other, and wide gaps in social background or lifestyle can defeat this requirement.
• The most common background variables that are considered in running mixed versus segmented groups are sex, race, age, and social class.

     1.3 Strangers versus Acquaintances

• The rule of thumb favors strangers because, although acquaintances can converse more readily, this is often due to their ability to rely on the kind of taken-for-granted assumptions that are exactly what the researcher is trying to investigate.
•  However, social scientists routinely conduct focus groups in organizations and other naturally occurring groups in which acquaintanceship is unavoidable.   

2. Determining the Level of Group Interview Structure

    2.1 Structured

• More structured approaches to focus groups are especially useful when there is a strong, preexisting agenda for the research.
• Both a standardized interview and a higher level of moderator involvement contribute to meeting this set agenda.
• The most obvious problem with more structured approaches is that a narrow set of questions or a motivated moderator may well produce equivalently limited data. 

    2.2 Less Structured Groups

• Less structured approaches to focus groups are especially useful for exploratory research.
• When the basic issues are poorly understood or existing knowledge is based on researcher imposed agendas, then an unstandardized interview guide will provide the opportunity to hear the interests of the participants themselves in each group.
• A major disadvantage of less structured groups is that they are more difficult to compare from group to group. 

    2.3 The “FUNNEL” as a Compromised Approach

• Each group begins with a less structured approach that emphasizes free discussion and then moves toward a more structured discussion of specific questions.

Resources

Morgan, D. L. (1997). Qualitative Research Methods: Focus groups as qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781412984287