Another advantage is that a focus group can allow participants to learn from one another as they exchange views and to understand research as an enriching experience. An advantage of focus groups is their fairly low cost compared to surveys because focus groups allow a researcher to obtain results relatively quickly and increase the sample size by including several people at once. In combination with participant observation, focus groups can be used for learning about group attitudes and patterns of interaction. In the social sciences and in urban planning, focus groups allow interviewers to study people in a more natural conversational pattern than typically occurs in a one-to-one interview. Focus groups can also help librarians better understand patron behavior and the impact of services on the library use. In addition, teachers, other professionals, and researchers can also be recruited to participate in focus groups to ascertain those individuals' library-related needs. The focus groups librarians organize are helpful in identifying patrons' needs. In disciplines of library and information science, when librarians intend to work on a library's collection, they consult patrons. Use in disciplines Library and information science Psychologist and marketing expert Ernest Dichter coined the term "focus group" itself before his death in 1991. Paul Lazarsfeld had also received a government contract to get insight into individuals' responses to war radio propaganda. The use of focus groups by sociologists gained popularity in the 1980s when Merton published a report on focused interviews. He later established focus groups for the Bureau of Applied Social Research. From there, Merton created an interviewing procedure to gain further insight into the subjective reactions of focus-group participants. Merton devised a procedure in which twelve participants at a radio studio would respond to negatively associated content by hitting a red button or positively associated information by hitting a green button. Merton set out to analyze the effectiveness of propaganda with the use of focus groups. Focus groups may also include an observer who pays attention to dynamics not expressed in words e.g., body language, people who appear to have something to add but do not speak up.įocus groups first started in the 1940s as a research method in the context of market research concerning radio soap operas. Researchers/evaluators should select members of the focus group carefully in order to obtain useful information. While the focus group is taking place, the facilitator either takes notes and/or records the discussion for later note-taking in order to learn from the group. The interactivity of focus groups allows researchers to obtain qualitative data from multiple participants, often making focus groups a relatively expedient, convenient, and efficacious research method. Instead of a researcher/evaluator asking group members questions individually, focus groups use group interaction to explore and clarify participants' beliefs, opinions, and views. Group members are often free to talk and interact with each other. Used in qualitative research, the interviews involve a group of people who are asked about their perceptions, attitudes, opinions, beliefs, and views regarding many different topics (e.g., abortion, political candidates or issues, a shared event, needs assessment). Marketers can use the information collected from focus groups to obtain insights on a specific product, controversy, or topic. Ī focus group is also used by sociologists, psychologists, and researchers in communication studies, education, political science, and public health. Thus, focus groups constitute a research or evaluation method that researchers organize to collect qualitative data through interactive and directed discussions. If group members are representative of a larger population, those reactions may be expected to reflect the views of that larger population. The idea is for the researcher to understand participants' reactions. As a program evaluation tool, they can elicit lessons learned and recommendations for performance improvement. In market research, focus groups can explore a group's response to a new product or service. Focus groups are used in market research to understand better people's reactions to products or services or participants' perceptions of shared experiences. Their reactions to specific researcher/evaluator-posed questions are studied. A focus group is a group interview involving a small number of demographically similar people or participants who have other common traits/experiences.
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