Focus Groups

Background and General Practice

Focus group discussions cover a precise topic rather than broad generalities. Such discussions are held by a relatively small amount of people. Since the 1980s, the focus group technique has become an increasingly popular investigative technique for organizations looking to gather feedback on the needs of employees and consumers.

Focus groups contribute to the measurement of life-span development by providing a forum that generates feedback concerning quantitative measurement items. This feedback provides insights into the wording of the items and response options and identifies potential gaps in the content.

In addition to small group interviews, focus groups may be a set of planned series of discussions carefully designed to obtain members’ perceptions on topics of interest in a controlled environment. Moreover, focus groups can be defined as an interaction among individuals who have some common interests conducted by a moderator in a way to obtain information about a specific topic. Based on the previous definitions, a focus group is defined as an investigative tool for social research based on a structured and focused discussion with a small group of people, run by a facilitator (moderator) to generate qualitative data through a set of open-ended questions.

[Page 890]In many studies, focus groups have been used as the research methodology because of their ability to generate items for questionnaire development. Focus groups enable the researchers to attain in-depth insights into the topic to collect specific information and opinions from a small number of people. The primary goal of such focus groups is to develop and formulate a set of appropriate questions to be asked in the subsequent questionnaire; therefore, the nature of a focus group is exploratory. The focus group is also considered to be a more effective tool when used in conjunction with other data collection methods as a form of triangulation. Focus groups are a relatively low-cost research tool compared to some other methods, and they do not require a lot of preparation and arrangements.

Focus Group Structures

Ideally, focus group research comprises a minimum of three groups. Many researchers have recommended that focus groups include between 4 and 31 participants. However, there is no solid rule for focus group sizes. Small groups of four to six participants may be productive because they encourage members to take part in the discussion. Groups are most often composed of eight respondents. Although large focus groups are more difficult to control and have difficulty achieving equal participation in the discussion, larger groups may produce wide-ranging ideas and a competitive environment. Focus groups are most productively conducted with a comparatively homogeneous group because participants may feel more free to contribute their opinions in relatively homogenous groups.

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