Week 9

Question 1

explain the history of focus groups

Answer 1

became popular during WW2 (due to us gov. funding propaganda research). Lazarsfeld did a study asking people to press a red or green button in reaction to the propaganda they heard on the radio. idea of group interviews was because it LOWERED the COST (vs 1-on-1). “focused interviews” became a thing-unstructured, in groups or 1.

Question 2

what are the advantages of focus groups?

Answer 2

ability to OBSERVE GROUP DYNAMICS, LOWER TIME COSTS, IN-DEPTH INFO about participants, ability to CLARIFY/ FOLLOW UP/ REACT to answers, ability to DISCOVER something UNEXPECTED

Question 3

what are the disadvantages of focus groups?

Answer 3

LIMITED:
-ability to go deep into INDIVIDUALS EXPERIENCES (vs interviews)
- NUMBER of participants
ability to make STATISTICAL GENERALIZATIONS
- ability to ESTIMATE CAUSAL EFFECTS
also…
- UNCOOPERATIVE participants
- SOCIAL BIAS (comments are made in front of a larger group)

Question 4

what are the key RECRUITMENT DECISIONS for focus groups?

Answer 4

1. DEFINE TARGET population
2. decide how HOMO/ HETEROGENOUS you want the groups to be (ex. people will all the same background vs everyone with different backgrounds)
3. PRE-SCREENING SURVEY (makes sure participants will meet certain requirements-don’t want misrepresentation)

Question 5

what are the 4 key DATA COLLECTion decisions?

Answer 5

1. degree of STRUCTURE
2. choice of MODERATOR
3. MODE (in-person vs online)
4. RECORDING and TRANSCRIPTION (ex. writing things down as they talk, or taking notes from behind a two way mirror-plus people may act different on camera?)