Sunday, October 3, 2010
Knight and Focus Groups
After reading Knight's article for this week, I was very surprised by his comments regrading in his view the limited benefit of focus groups in research. I feel that he discourages students from using this method although it could be useful for some. I know first-hand that some large consumer companies have used focus groups to further conduct their research and often compensate individuals huge sums of money for their participation. In my experience in a focus group, there were a variety of questions; some were open-ended and some were simply yes or no. My focus group did not go "off track" as we were all there to discuses the product. I think Knight should have over all been more open about focus groups and he was us to keep an open mind for other methods of research.
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Christina,
ReplyDeleteI too was surprised with how hard Knight comes down on focus groups, given that the remainder of the chapter seemed like an overall even-handed discussion of the various methods available. Having learned a thing or two about my own behaviour in group settings over the last few weeks, I can see his concerns (especially about going off-track and members who can be domineering - mea culpa!), but on the other hand it seems strange that when studying the individual, every factor from their real life is taken into consideration, while a similar consideration of how group dynamics affects response seems almost discouraged by discounting it as "noise".
I wish i had talked more about this in class today. Focus groups definitely have their place, and are invaluable for studies that want to include social interaction as a factor/component/question. Glad to see this discussion going on!
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