Exam 7: Focus Groups

Describe the ethical issues you expect to encounter and how you would address them when conducting focus groups.

Salim is in the planning stages of his research project on healing rituals in northern communities. Prior to conducting his research, he starts to have informal conversations with members of the community to discuss which cultural symbols will be used in their group interviews, to gain perspectives about how they can establish the ground rules associated with this symbolism, and to decide on how to guide the discussion. In his study, Salim's research technique is most likely ________.

Jenny Kitzenger's focus-group study on the effect of media messages about AIDS involved a careful analysis of participants' interactions. Based on her experience, Kitzenger suggests that researchers include ________ in their data analysis for different types of interaction.

________ among focus group members is more complicated than in in-depth interviews, where the interviewer promises not to divulge any information that would connect the participant to the research.

An important strength of talking circles is ________.

The author makes all of the following logistical suggestions for advance planning, except ________.

Briefly discuss what strategies you might use to avoid having one person dominate the discussion during a focus group.

Focus group participants often come into the group with stable underlying attitudes and opinions.

Talking circles have a sacred meaning for many Indigenous communities. They originated among the Woodland Tribes in the Midwest, where they were used as a ________.

Identify what information researchers should provide after participants agree to attend a focus group. What do you think is the best way to provide this information?

Gillian is conducting a focus group with Canadian expats teaching English as a second language in Korea. During the session, Gillian notices that her participants really start to work together as a team to describe how feelings of homesickness are alleviated by involvement in expat potluck dinners organized by a local community group. She notices the participants have become interactive and productive and start to really value each other's points of view. Her participants even came up with a new idea for how to make these potluck dinners more inclusive and recognized they were using the dinners as a way to bridge their new and old cultures. Gillian was impressed that she didn't have to say much at all to keep the conversation going. According to Litosseliti, Gillian experiencing the ________ of the focus group.

The best space to hold a focus group is ________.

Many of the principles of writing qualitative interview questions are appropriate for a focus group guide.

When analyzing the data from focus group conversations and interactions, that textbook author notes that researchers need to recognize all of the following, except ________.

Discuss why Lia Litosseliti recommends conducting a pilot focus group before officially beginning your study.

When the textbook author and her partner were analyzing the focus-group transcripts from their study of the equality of women and men in the Bahá'í Community of Canada, they noticed that the discussions tended to have a ________ that was consistent across groups. This sociological term refers to the stages a social group passes through.

When conducting a focus group, the moderator is looking to establish an informal, open atmosphere in which all the participants feel comfortable participating and freely expressing their opinions.

According to Hollander, when analyzing focus group data, it is important to remember that the attitudes and opinions expressed by participants are ________ through interaction.

Initially, both market researchers and sociologists used focus groups primarily to help them design surveys.

Using examples, briefly explain why researchers should consider the social status of participants when deciding who should participate in each focus group.