Issues When Adapting Focus Groups
When adapting focus groups, the researcher should bear in mind what the
focus group can do and what it can't do. Although there is elasticity
in the procedure, too much stretch may snap the process. When adapting
focus groups, consider the following:
The purpose. It is appropriate to use focus groups to collect information,
to listen, and to learn. Focus groups are not primarily intended to teach,
to inform, or to have others sanction a decision.
* Recruiting. Focus group participants are preselected. Open invitations
to the public or blanket invitations to a group are not used in focus
group interviews.
* The nature of the discussion. A focused interview is composed primarily
of open-ended questions that allow participants to select the manner of
their response. It is not an open discussion of anything of interest.
* The environment. The focused interview is conducted in a permissive
environment conducive to sharing, listening, and responding.
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