2. The Focus Group Method
❖ It is an interview with several people on a specific topic or issue
❖ Used extensively in marketing research relatively less in social research
❖ Typically emphasises a specific theme or topic that is explored in depth,
whereas group interviews often span very widely
❖ Save time and money
❖ The ways in which individuals discuss a certain issue as members of a
group rather than simply as individuals
❖ The person who runs the Focus Groups sessions is usually called the
moderator or facilitator- expected to guide sessions- but not to be
intrusive
3. ❖ A type of group interview
❖ Questioning a particular fairly tightly defined topic
❖ Accent is upon interaction within the group and the joint construction of
meaning
❖ Composed of 7 to 10 people sharing certain characteristics relevant to the study
questions
❖ The moderator give supportive environment, asking focused questions to
encourage discussion and the expression of differing opinions and points of view
❖ These interviews may be conducted several times with different individuals so
that the researcher can identify trends in the perceptions and opinions expressed
which are revealed through careful, systematic analysis
4. ❖ Questions in a focus group setting are deceptively
simple, the trick is to promote the participants’
expression fo their views through the creation of
supportive environment
❖ Advantages- socially oriented, natural settings, more
relaxed than one to one interview, less time and money
consuming, provide quick results, helps in increasing
sample size of qualitative studies by permitting more
people to be interviewed at one time
5. ❖ Disadvantages- issue of power dynamics in the focus
group settings, interviews has less control over the
group than an individual one, problem of irrelevant
topic discussion, requires special room arrangements
and highly trained observer moderators
