I was wondering whether asking the participants of a focus group to agreeing on an outcome would be an interesting way to make them (intensively) discuss the scenarios (intensifying and mitigating arguments).
- Has this been done before? I have been looking for it but so far haven't found any source.
Would it be better to:
1. Survey the participants' decision on a particular scenario before its discussion.
2. Discussion with the other participants
3. Another survey to see whether decisions have changed?
Or should I just not do anything and let them discuss naturally each scenario?
Thank you in advance,
Focus groups often use preliminary questions as "stimulus material" to generate subsequent discussion. In general, however, just asking people if they say "yes" or "no" to some issue is a weak way to generate discussion. Instead, asking them to write down what they they think are the 2 or 3 strongest and weakest points about the proposal would be more effective.
If you are thinking about measuring something pre- and post-discussion via surveys, you should consider whether you have sufficient N to generate a statistically meaningful analysis.
Hi David,
Thank you very much for the response. Yes, I completely understand. Could you share some articles that you know where such preliminary questions are present? I have been trying to find and nothing came up.
Also, what are your views on asking a focus groups to agree on an outcome of a vignette (as a way to intensify the discussion)?
E.g. - " If Elisabeth tells her parents that her sister is doing drugs, her sister will also tell their parents that Elisabeth is also doing drugs"
- What would you do if you were Elisabeth and why?
Would it be wise (has it been done? - can't find any sources), regarding asking the participants of a focus groups to present their arguments, but in the end, there should be a consensus?
Thank you very much - The methods part of my thesis has been giving me a massive headache no matter how many methods books I have read,
There are any number of general discussions of stimulus materials in books on focus groups, but I doubt if you are going to find something as specific as what you are requesting.
You might look at Krueger's book on moderating in the focus group kit or my recent book, Basic and Advanced Focus groups.
I would recommend you to find the appropriate qualitive research method (nominal group technique, Delphi study, etc) you would like to use and than choose your directions, methods and analyses you would like to use.
Focusgroups are more on generating ideas and there are many manuals to find. Did you try Google scholar? Reaching consensus is mostly being done in a for example a consensus group after a couple of focus groups with analyses in between to establish reliability of your outcomes, depending on your method.
Fosugroup have their own method, mostly ending by summarizing the outcomes of the group and asking participants if you missed anything. non-verbal observations can be done to establish the consensus of ideas that the group generates. you can always ask a question about a scenario as you suggested but the data of the discussion will give you more information than a consensus on this specific case.
Literature besides Krueger also Wilkinson and Onwuegbuzie.
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