A graduate level introduction to and illustrated tutorial on focus group research.
New title in 2014:
A thorough discussion of focus group research implementation, including the roles of the facilitator and assistant facilitator, developing an implementation timeline, developing a focus group script, organizing the session itself, analysis of results, and much more. Explains how to use Microsoft Access to archive focus group results and analyze them with SQL queries. Appendices provide sample letters of consent and of confirmation, and a focus group contact form. Distinguishes focus group research and focused group interviewing.
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Below is the unformatted table of contents.
FOCUS GROUP RESEARCH Table of Contents 3 Overview 5 Key concepts and terms 6 History 6 Focus group research vs. focused interviewing of groups 7 The focus group facilitator 8 Participant selection 8 Focus group size and number of sessions 9 Focus group membership 10 The consent form 10 Organizing the focus group 11 Planning 11 Timeline 12 Recording 13 Forming a session script 14 Overview 14 The opening section 14 The question section 16 The ending section 17 Role of the facilitator 17 Role of the assistant facilitator 20 Coding and reporting focus group results 20 Reporting and analysis 20 Coding 21 Example of coding with Access, a relational database 22 Coding software 27 Assumptions 30 Sources of bias are numerous 30 The focus group as action research 30 Frequently asked questions 31 When is the focus group approach not recommended? 31 Is focus group research accepted by all qualitative researchers? 32 What is a "mutational question"? 32 What is the "graphic reinstatement" technique? 33 What is the relation of focus group research to social media? 33 What is FocusVision? 34 What is focusgroups.com? 34 Appendix A: Sample focus group consent letter 35 Appendix B: Sample focus group confirmation letter 36 Appendix C: Sample focus group contact form 38 Bibliography 38 Pagecount: 43