Focused Group Interview
Focus group interview is a tool for qualitative market research where a group of people are
selected and asked about their opinion or perceptions about a particular topic. The
environment is interactive where the participants are free to discuss with each other.
Size of Focused Group Interview
The ideal size group is 8-10 people depending on the demographic and topic being
researched. Group sizes can be as many as 12-15 participants but requires a strong moderator
to facilitate that many people. Focus group participants should be selected based on their
familiarity with a product, service or purchasing behaviors.
Important Characteristics of Focused Group Interview
Prompt/Stimulus: The sessions usually revolve around a prompt, a trigger, some
stimulus introduced by the moderator in order to focus the discussion.
Moderator-not a Neutral Person: There is less emphasis on the moderator to adopt
a neutral role in the proceedings than is normally the case with other interview
techniques.
Interaction within the Group: Interaction between group members is given a
particular value rather than just gathering opinions of people. The collective view is
given more importance than the aggregate view.
Guidelines for questions in Focused group Interview
Focus questions are always open ended,
Questions must be of “qualitative nature” and quantifiers e.g. as how much may be
avoided.
Avoid questions that have a possible ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers,
Use of directive approach is avoided to know the reasons behind a particular
standpoint or reaction of the participant`. Thus ‘why’ question is not generally asked.
Large number of questions may be outlined through brainstorming, and then may be
reduced to questions as desired.
The question should be sequenced in a natural flow
Criteria for successful group interview
Factors that determine the effectiveness of focus groups are
Clarity of objective,
Suitable setting
Adequate resources
Appropriate subjects
Skilled moderator
Effective questions
Honouring the participants
Advantages of focused group interview
Rich qualitative data can be collected with reasonable speed
Depending on the number of questions and the complexity of the issues, between one
to two hours are sufficient for most discussions.
Participants can see at a glance what is being done
Participants are encouraged to interact with each other and not merely respond to the
moderator. Focus groups offer an opportunity for immediate feedback or clarification
Focus groups can allow a researcher to explore the unanticipated aspects of the
problem under study.
Limitations of the focused group
There are a number of limitations associated with the focus group interview. Some of them
are
It is considerably difficult to get the people together on time for the group session
A few vocal participants may dominate other members in the course of group
discussion.
Some participants may conform to the responses of other participants, even though
they may not agree.
Sometimes it is very difficult for the researcher to find out the group with the required
characteristics.
The success of focus group is affected if the moderator is not skilled in managing the
group interaction.
Grounded theory
Grounded theory involves the collection and analysis of data. The theory is “grounded” in
actual data, which means the analysis and development of theories happens after you have
collected the data. It was introduced by Glaser & Strauss in 1967 to legitimize qualitative
research. Grounded theory represents the integration of a quantitative and qualitative
perspective in thinking and action processes
Grounded theory is a method in naturalistic research that is used primarily to generate theory.
The researcher begins with a broad query in a particular topic area and then collects relevant
information about the topic. As the action processes of data collection continue, each piece of
information is reviewed, compared, and contrasted with other information. From this constant
comparison process, commonalities and dissimilarities among categories of information
become clear, and ultimately a theory that explains observations is inductively developed.
Grounded theory can also be used to modify existing theory or to expand on or uncover
differences from what is already known
Grounded theory is similar to other naturalistic designs in its use of an inductive process to
derive concepts, constructs, relationships, and principles to understand and explain a
phenomenon. However, grounded theory is distinguished from other naturalistic designs by
its use of a structured data-gathering and analytical process called the constant comparative
method. In this approach, each datum is compared with others to determine similarities and
differences
Example: How does the native of Jharkhand are fighting with COVID – 19 successfully?
