Exam 9: Focus Groups

Exploratory research is a research ______.

Which type of notes would you take during your focus group, and why would that style of notetaking be the most appropriate?

Why is it important to avoid large power differences between the participants in your focus groups?

Describe the number and composition of participants in each group, and explain your decisions.

Would you choose to conduct structured or unstructured focus groups for this research? Why? Would you choose structured or unstructured focus groups for this research? Why?

Which two stages of research may happen concurrently in focus group research?

Which type of notes would you take during your focus group, and why would that style of notetaking be the most appropriate?

You are conducting research to better understand why so many homeless teenagers participating in a transitional housing program eventually opt out and return to "living on the streets," with the goal of identifying the problem and generating ideas about possible solutions. You have decided to narrow your focus to teens who receive services at a local drop-in center for homeless youth and are either currently living in transitional housing or have left transitional housing in the past year. Which of the following would be the best gatekeeper for your research?

Basic focus group research can be used to ______.

What does validity mean in focus group research?

You notice that in your focus groups on making the workplace more productive, the groups of women bring up dress attire and harassment, but your first group with men mentions none of these. What should you do?

You are conducting research on voters' perceptions of policies that seek to reduce household carbon emissions. During the focus groups, you present each participant with a brief overview of several versions of a policy that is likely to appear on next year's ballot. You ask them to briefly discuss each version of the policy, including its pros and cons, and to recommend changes to each that would make it more appealing to them. Which type of group exercise are you using?

One of the strengths of focus group research is that it can create synergy between the respondents. What does synergy mean in the context of focus group research, and why is it considered a strength?

Which sampling method would you use to choose participants? Why?

The unit of analysis in focus group research is ______.

When inviting someone to join your focus group, you should first contact them ______.

List two out of the three ways in which an informed consent statement for focus group research might differ from that of interview research.

How many focus groups would you conduct? Why?

Which of the following is the best research question for applied focus group research?

You are conducting research on a proposed new low-barrier homeless shelter near the local university. You want to see how different groups respond to this possibility, and how you can best address their concerns. Ideally you are interested in the perspectives of local full-time residents in the neighborhood, university administrators, owners of nearby businesses, and university students who live in the neighborhood. With a tight budget, you are limited to conducting seven focus groups. Thinking about how quickly you would reach saturation, which of the following is the best plan for the number and composition of the groups?