SOCI 211 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Ethnomethodology, Design Of Experiments, Grou
1 Jun 2016
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Focus groups resemble qualitative interviews in that a researcher may prepare an interview guide in advance and interact with participants by asking them questions. Focus groups re planned discussions designed to elicit group interaction and obtain perceptions on a defined area of interest in a permissive, nonthreatening environment . In this case, the researcher may play a less active role than in a one-on-one interview. The researcher"s aim is to get participants talking to each other and to observe interactions among participants. The researcher takes the role of moderator, posing questions or topics for discussion, but then lets the group members discuss the question or topic among themselves. In fact, this method is especially popular among applied researchers such as market researchers, government officials and political campaign workers, propaganda researchers. Focus groups share many of the strengths and weaknesses of one-on-one qualitative interviews. Yet, they can also be quite expensive and time- consuming.
