Doing Focus Groups

Introducing Focus Groups
Generating Data
Underpinnings of Focus Group Research
Research Design
Planning and Running Focus Groups
Ethics and Engagement

• Many sectors in the research community use focus
groups
• Broadcasting, marketing and public relations
• Organisational research and development
• Community development and participatory approaches
• Health Services and Social Science research

• Not used in the same way by each group
Framework
Use
Group
Work
Client/
Interviewee
Relationship
Many
More…

• Can be brutal for your self-esteem
This is the worst
thing I’ve ever seen!
I’d never be able to
use that!
LOUD NOISES!

Accessing Narratives
Shouldn’t be used for

Accessing Attitudes
Shouldn’t be used for
Attitudes are performed not pre-formed

Access hard to reach groups
Can be used to

Focus groups can be carried out more quickly and
more cheaply than other methods!
nope…sorry.
1. Travel
2. Room Hire
3. Refreshments
4. Transcription
5. Telephoning Time
6. Logistics of group composition and
participant availability

Great for answering diﬀicult “why-not” questions
?
Why do you not go to the dentist
every 6 months?
Immunisation Behaviour
Smoking whilst Pregnant
Asthma Management

Great for getting feedback on questionnaires early
within a research study!

Underpinnings of Focus Group Research

Focus groups excel at providing insights into
process rather than outcome

We can look at how attitudes are formed and
how views are formed and modified

We can look at how attitudes are formed and
how views are formed and modified
Illuminates the insiders perspective

“We will never know what respondents might have
revealed in the ‘privacy’ of an in-depth interview but
we do know what they were prepared to elaborate
and defend in the company of their peers.”

• Focus groups are not the time-pressed researchers
substitute for ethnographic field work
• Should be used as a mainstream method to address
topics in groups which are less open to observational
methods

• Should be used to to document the processes through
which group norms and meanings are shaped,
elaborated, and applied.

Focus Group Interviewor
More
comfortable
talking 1-to-1
Safety in
numbers
approach

• There’s no such thing as a neutral setting for a
focus group.
• It is important to anticipate the eﬀect of
diﬀerent locations on the content of the data
generated

• It is important to acquire background information about
the group being studies, either through preliminary
fieldwork or by accessing the knowledge held by local
organisations

• Try to be created regarding potential recruitment sources
bet be alert to the emphasis and gaps in coverage that
may result from involving gatekeepers in recruitment of
your sample
• There are positives and negatives to using both
top-down and bottom-up approaches

How many focus
groups should you
run? 2+

How many people
in each group? 3-12

Planning and Running Focus Groups

• Visit your venue in advance
• Refreshments?
• What sorts of foods
• Will anything influence people?
• Is 1 room enough
• If not, is 1 facilitator enough?

Recording and
Transcribing
• What sort of things can you use to record your data? How
advanced do you want to go?

Transcribe your
sessions yourself!
• Best way for you to learn about the data
• …but you will find this very boring!
• Lots of tools out there to help you do this
• Amazingly…YouTube caption engine is one of the
easiest!

Starting your Focus
Groups
• Introduce yourself
• Give the purpose of the session (briefing)
• Do ethics forms
• Let participants introduce each other

Developing a Topic
Guide
• Developing your questions is only the first part
• Also want to look at developing follow on
items
x
a
b
y
z
c
d

Thinking about
question order
• Start with non-threatning (easy) questions and
build up to sensitive ones
• Semi-structured approach is good, but you’ll
need to know a lot about the topic yourself

Stimulus Material
• Useful in breaking the ice and injecting humour
• Can stimulate discussion
• Can aﬀord comparisons across groups

• Give careful consideration to the reasons
participants may have for taking part in your
study and be as open as possible regarding
implications for them as individuals and the
outcome of the project

• Try to anticipate potential diﬀiculties and be
as clear as possible about the role of
boundaries

• Debrief is very important for focus groups, so
give ample time for this

• Pay attention to all of the other ethical issues
that we have discussed in lecture up to this
point.

• Focus groups can generate lively discussion
and rich data, as participants reformulate their
views, engage in debate, and express and
explore shared cultural understandings

Stories Stimuli
(Making)
Sense
?

Ask the same thing again
and again
• Sometimes you want to
be very concrete in the
questions you are asking
• Sometimes it’s better to
ask the same thing in a
very “elaborate” way

• Guide responses and ‘head oﬀ trouble’.
• Especially useful when asking questions likely
to be unfamiliar in the context of everyday
interactions
• Ask questions flexible and provide a range of
alternative items to which participants can
respond
• Coach participants in the kind of responses that
are appropriate

Use your own summaries as
signposting for how the session is
going

It’s ok to theorise tentatively and
to invite participants to join in. But
be careful to explain or rephrase
terms
Remember - you are not the expert
in this scenario, participants can
join in and theorise too

Information in this
presentation was
based on…

Doing Focus Groups

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