Benefits of Focus Group Research

Benefits of Focus Group Research

Introduction:

Focus group research offers the unique opportunity for researchers to

perceive an individual, and their opinions, not only in an exclusive

situation, but also as part of a group. Within a group there is a

wealth of tacit and experiential knowledge from the outset as in the

course of most people's lives they will have interacted with other

people in group situations. Bryman (2001) refers to the focused

interview as the precept for focus group research,

'The original idea for the focus group- the focused interview- was

that people who were known to have a certain experience could be

interviewed in a relatively unstructured way about the

experience.'(p.336-7)

Bryman (2001) notes that the main aims and merits of focus group

research include the discovery of how people have constructed their

knowledge, why they think what they do;

Issues that concern the participants are bought to the fore as the

moderator relinquishes power. Throughout the course of the group

participants are challenged and may change or revise their views. The

researcher may also use the concepts of group dynamics to study the

ways in which individuals make sense of a phenomenon. Focus group

research differs from a group interview, as the motivation is not to

save time on individual interviews, but to study group dynamics and

get extra information from this. Arguments and 'sensitive moments'

within the group may give rise to the tacit knowledge about why

participants hold certain views.

My aim is to demonstrate firstly, the different definitions and

schools of thought on what actually co...

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