- Focus Groups Test Bank Docx Ch.21

Chapter 21 - Focus groups

Test Bank

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 21 - Question 01

01) A focus group is a form of group interview in which there are several participants (in addition to the moderator/facilitator); there is an emphasis in the questioning on a fairly tightly defined topic.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 21 - Question 02

02) In a focus group study, the emphasis is on the interaction within the group and the joint construction of meaning.

a. True

b. False

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 21 - Question 03

03) Which of the following is not a use for a focus group?

• The original idea for the focus group—the focused interview—was that people who were known to have had a certain experience could be interviewed in a relatively unstructured way about that experience. The bulk of the discussion by Merton, Fiske, and Kendall (1956) of the notion of the focused interview was in terms of individual interviews, but their book also considered the extension of the method into group interview contexts. Subsequently, the focus group has become a popular method for researchers examining the ways in which people in conjunction with one another construe the general topics in which the researcher is interested. In management and business, early use of the focus group technique was also seen as a way of helping individuals to define problems and work together to identify potential solutions (Hutt 1979). The dynamics of group discussion could lead individuals to define business problems in new and innovative ways and to stimulate creative ideas for their solution.
• The technique allows the researcher to develop an understanding about why people feel the way they do. In a normal individual interview the interviewee is often asked about his or her reasons for holding a particular view, but the focus group approach others the opportunity of allowing people to probe each other’s reasons for holding a certain view. This can be more interesting than the sometimes-predictable question-followed-by-answer approach of normal interviews. For one thing, an individual may answer in a certain way during a focus group, but, as he or she listens to others’ answers, he or she may want to qualify or modify a view; or alternatively may want to voice agreement to something that he or she probably would not have thought of without the opportunity of hearing the views of others. These possibilities mean that focus groups may also be very helpful in the elicitation of a wide variety of views in relation to a particular issue.
• In focus groups, participants are able to bring to the fore issues in relation to a topic that they deem to be important and significant. This is clearly an aim of individual interviews too, but, because the moderator has to relinquish a certain amount of control to the participants, the issues that concern them can surface. This is clearly an important consideration in the context of qualitative research, since the viewpoints of the people being studied are an important point of departure.
• In conventional one-to-one interviewing, interviewees are rarely challenged; they might say things that are inconsistent with earlier replies or that patently could not be true, but we are often reluctant to point out such deficiencies. In the context of a focus group, individuals will often argue with each other and challenge each other’s views. This process of arguing means that the researcher may stand a chance of ending up with more realistic accounts of what people think, because they are forced to think about and possibly revise their views.
• The focus group others the researcher the opportunity to study the ways in which individuals collectively make sense of a phenomenon and construct meanings around it. It is a central tenet of such theoretical positions as symbolic interactionism that the process of coming to terms with (that is, understanding) social phenomena is not undertaken by individuals in isolation from each other. Instead, it is something that occurs in interaction and discussion with others. In this sense, therefore, focus groups reflect the processes through which meaning is constructed in everyday life and to that extent can be regarded as more naturalistic (see Key concept 3.4 on the idea of naturalism) than individual interviews (Wilkinson 1998).

a. So people could be interviewed in an unstructured way about their experience

b. To allow a researcher to understand why people feel the way they do

c. To allow individuals to bring to the fore issues they may deem important

d. To allow individuals to express themselves in a one-to-one capacity

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 21 - Question 04

04) The results of focus groups are usually easily generalizable.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 21 - Question 05

05) There is a great deal of consensus on how many focus groups should be done.

a. True

b. False

Section Reference: 21.3 Conducting Focus Groups

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 21 - Question 06

06) How large should a focus group generally be?

Section Reference: 21.3 Conducting Focus Groups

a. 0-4

b. 1-5

c. 6-10

d. 6-15

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 21 - Question 07

07) In conducting a focus group, the role of the moderator needs to be somewhat intrusive and structured.

a. True

b. False

Section Reference: 21.3 Conducting Focus Groups

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 21 - Question 08

08) When conducting a focus group, the moderator should err on the side of minimal intervention.

a. True

Section Reference: 21.3 Conducting Focus Groups

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 21 - Question 09

09) Snowball sampling is not an appropriate method for recruiting participants for a focus group.

a. True

b. False

Section Reference: 21.3 Conducting Focus Groups

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 21 - Question 10

10) It is good practice for the for the moderator to outline the goals of the research and the format for the focus group session at the outset

a. True

Section Reference: 21.3 Conducting Focus Groups

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 21 - Question 11

11) Focus groups generally take good account of interaction within the group

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 21 - Question 12

12) Focus groups are a method often associated with feminist research.

a. True

b. False

Type: multiple response question

Title: Chapter 21 - Question 13

13) Which aspects of the focus group method highlight its compatibility with the ethics and politics of feminism? Please select all that apply.

1. Focus group research is less artificial than many other methods, because, in emphasizing group interaction, which is a normal part of social life, it does not suffer from the problem of gleaning information in an unnatural situation. Moreover, the tendency of many focus group researchers to recruit participants from naturally occurring groups underpins the lower level of artificiality of the method, since people are able to discuss in situations that are quite normal for them. As a result, there is greater opportunity to derive understandings that chime with the ‘lived experience’ of women. However, not all writers accept the contention that focus groups are more naturalistic than individual interviews. Even when natural groups are used, gathering people to discuss a certain topic (such as a television advertisement) is not inherently naturalistic, because the social setting is to a significant extent contrived (Morrison 1998: 154–5). Indeed, completing questionnaires or being interviewed may appear more natural, because such instruments are fairly commonplace, whereas being asked to discuss in a group an issue not necessarily of one’s choosing is less so.
2. Feminist researchers have expressed a preference for methods that avoid decontextualization—that is, that successfully study the individual within a social context. The tendency for most methods to treat the individual as a separate entity devoid of a social con- text is disliked by many feminist researchers, who prefer to analyse ‘the self as relational or as socially constructed’ (Wilkinson 1999b: 229–30). Because the individual is very much part of a group in the focus group method, this tendency towards decontextualization is avoided.
3. As we have seen in previous chapters, feminist researchers are suspicious of research methods that are exploitative and create a power relationship between the female researcher and the female respondent. Wilkinson observes that the risk of this occurring is greatly reduced, because focus group participants are able to take over much of the direction of the session from the moderator. Indeed, they may even subvert the goals of the session in ways that could be of considerable interest to the moderator. As a result, participants’ points of view are much more likely to be revealed than in a traditional interview.

a. Because it is less artificial and emphasises group interaction

b. Because it is a method that avoids decontextualization

c. Because it’s a method that women tend to be more comfortable with than men

d. Because there is an absence of power relations within a focus group

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 21 - Question 14

14) Focus groups are difficult to analyse

a. True

b. False

Type: multiple response question

Title: Chapter 21 - Question 15

15) What are the main limitations of a focus group? Please select all that apply.

• The researcher probably has less control over proceedings than with the individual interview…
• They are difficult to organize. Not only do you have to secure the agreement of people to participate in your study; you also need to persuade them to turn up at a particular time.
• There are possible problems of group effects. This includes the obvious problem of dealing with reticent speakers and with those who hog the stage!’

a. Researcher has less control over proceedings

b. They are difficult to organise

c. They provide less insights than an interview

d. There are possible problems of group effects