Monday, November 16, 2009

What is the different between a focus group and a group interview when research is concerned?

I have to catergorise findings under the following headings:


Questionnaires


Focus groups - ???????????


Individual interviews





Are focus groups just group interviews?





Thank you for your help,


Emily.

What is the different between a focus group and a group interview when research is concerned?
Usually focus groups are used by researchers to determine the opinions of particular social groups.





So for example if you wanted to find out what American people thought of the death penalty instead of carrying out random group interviews with Americans you could could divide your respondents into different categories. By age, sex, religion or so on, depending on what you are trying to find out in your study.





Focus groups are more targeted than group interviews.
Reply:Focus groups are pretty much group interviesws - there is a facilitator that usually starts with an icebreaker before getting into the question. A lot of rich data can be generated from the ensuing discussion, so it is technically more than a group interview (which implies interviewer-interviewee interaction only). A facilitator encourages different ideas (like in brainstorming).
Reply:it depends what you are trying to achieve -


a group interview could be just that - more of a q %26amp; a session, and is great for testing products etc


whereas a focus group discusses issues and presents possible solutions (depending on the project, for example, public consultation on government issues etc)

buck teeth

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