Deck 9: Focus Groups

Question 1

Exploratory research is a research ______.

A) about a topic about which there is little research already conducted
B) that revisits a well-researched topic from a new perspective
C) that tries to determine whether there is a causal relationship between variables
D) aimed at exploring the unmet needs people have

Answer 1

about a topic about which there is little research already conducted

Question 2

Which of the following is a use of basic focus group research?

A) to generate ideas for new programs, polices, and products
B) needs assessment and evaluation research
C) to test and evaluate prototypes
D) to better understand the results of other research

Answer 2

to better understand the results of other research

Question 3

A potential weakness of focus group research is the effect of group think. An example of this is ______.

A) the researcher's bias influences the flow of group discussion
B) participants spend so much time together that they start to think and act similarly
C) participants voice the opinions of the group as their own
D) participants polarize into two factions with opposite opinions

Answer 3

participants voice the opinions of the group as their own

Question 4

Which of the following research scenarios would be best for unstructured focus group research?

A) You are conducting research to learn more about the relationship between rates of high school graduation and unplanned pregnancy.
B) You are evaluating the effectiveness of a recent sexual harassment training at a chain of retail stores.
C) You are conducting research to understand how Denver residents' perception of the use of psilocybin mushrooms has changed after the substance's recent decriminalization.
D) You are conducting research among college students to identify a variety of ways in which students would like professors to make material more useful to visual learners.

Question 5

The purpose of a structured focus group is to ______.

A) elicit particular types of information from the group
B) elicit standardized information from each participant
C) encourage free discussion between members of the group
D) generate new ideas about how to deal with a problem

Question 6

Focus groups are used to collect qualitative data. Which methodology most often provides the basis for focus group research?

A) positivist
B) interpretivist
C) critical
D) feminist

Question 7

What does validity mean in focus group research?

A) understanding the participants' perspectives and relaying them accurately
B) eliciting data from your participants that can be generalized to the population
C) removing all bias from the sampling and data collection process
D) ensuring that the results of your research are replicable

Question 8

Grounded theory is theory that ______.

A) is created deductively, beginning with abstract theory
B) is created inductively, beginning with empirical data
C) is grounded in interpretivist methodology
D) begins with hypothesis testing

Question 9

How can focus groups be used in conjunction with hypotheses from survey research?

A) by directly testing the hypotheses
B) by providing information for better conceptualizing and operationalizing the variables
C) by eliciting information to help form hypotheses
D) by helping to explain unexpected survey findings

Question 10

Basic focus group research can be used to ______.

A) evaluate the effect of a policy
B) identify the needs of a population
C) understand shared cultural meaning
D) generate new ideas for improving a program

Question 11

Applied focus group research can be used to ______.

A) understand shared cultural meaning
B) explain changes in opinion
C) explore group processes
D) identify a problem

Question 12

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

A) What is the relationship between contraceptive accessibility and child poverty?
B) What changes to classroom dynamics do students of color recommend for increasing participation?
C) How do people feel about taxes on alcohol and tobacco?
D) How do working single mothers describe the experience of raising children in a one-parent household?

Question 13

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

A) What is the relationship between contraceptive accessibility and child poverty?
B) What changes to classroom dynamics do students of color suggest for increasing participation?
C) How do people feel about taxing alcohol and tobacco?
D) How do working single mothers describe the experience of raising children in a one-parent household?

Question 14

What is the relationship between workplace discrimination and job satisfaction among private sector employees? Why is this not a good question for focus group research?

A) This question should be measured quantitatively with a survey.
B) It is too general.
C) It does not use the individual as the unit of analysis.
D) It requires a depth of understanding that should be studied with interview research.

Question 15

What new ideas do people have to decrease poverty in the United States? Why is this not a good question for focus group research?

A) This question should be measured quantitatively with a survey.
B) It is too general.
C) It does not use the individual as the unit of analysis.
D) It requires a depth of understanding that should be studied with interview research.

Question 16

The unit of analysis in focus group research is ______.

A) the community
B) the group
C) the individual
D) the population

Question 17

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

A) data collection and operationalizing
B) literature review and sampling
C) data collection and data analysis
D) sampling and operationalizing

Question 18

You are conducting research on young Asian women's understanding of how the feminization of Asian men in the U.S. men has affected their partner selection and attraction patterns. For this research, you decide that you want to get information from young Asian women (aged 18-24) and young Asian men (aged 18-24). You will also want to include the perspective of middle-aged Asian men and women to examine how the dynamic has changed over time. Assuming that you are working within fairly tight budget constraints, with which demographic would you hold the most focus groups?

A) middle-aged Asian women
B) young Asian women
C) young Asian men
D) an equal number of groups with young Asian men and young Asian women

Question 19

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?

A) four with university administrators and one group with each of the other demographics
B) four with university students, two with local full-time residents, and one with a combination of business owners and university administrators
C) two with local residents, two with business owners, two with university students, and one with university administrators
D) seven mixed groups that each include people from all four of the demographics

Question 20

During the sampling process for focus group research, you will want to confer with experts when deciding on how many groups to conduct. An expert ______.

A) must be professionally trained in the area of your research
B) should have a degree or certificate in the area of your research
C) will have significant personal or professional experience with the issue
D) is whomever is acting as your gatekeeper

Question 21

In focus group research, the goal is for each group to reach the point of saturation. What is saturation?

A) the point at which the data collected answers the research question
B) the point at which each participant has said all they have to say
C) the point at which no new information is being elicited
D) the point at which each subtopic or question has been addressed

Question 22

Which two sampling methods are the most likely to be used in focus group research?

A) convenience and cluster sampling
B) quota and theoretical sampling
C) simple random and stratified sampling
D) census and convenience sampling

Question 23

You are conducting research to generate new ideas about how to reduce rates of reoffending among drug offenders. While sampling for this research, you aim to include eight people from each the three ethnicities with the highest rates of reoffending: Whites, African Americans, and Latinx. Once each focus group has eight people, you stop accepting participants for that group. Which sampling method are you using in this scenario?

A) cluster
B) theoretical
C) simple random
D) quota

Question 24

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. Which sampling method would you most likely choose for sampling the university administrators?

A) theoretical
B) simple random
C) systematic
D) snowball

Question 25

Why might a researcher choose to use a simple random sample for focus group research?

A) to increase the diversity of participants in the sample
B) to make the research findings generalizable
C) to be consistent with positivist methodology
D) to make their research replicable

Question 26

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?

A) the staff person leading the activities at the drop-in center
B) a social worker who provides people referrals to the center
C) the director of the center
D) a relative of one of the teens

Question 27

Which of the following operationalizing tasks would you engage in for structured focus groups but not for unstructured focus groups?

A) deciding what information is important enough to write down
B) deciding which markers to follow up on
C) writing specific questions to be asked during the focus group
D) identifying which information to code during analysis

Question 28

During the first focus group that you conduct in a series of eight focus groups, you find that several participants were unclear what you were asking about with one of the questions and so provided answers that were tangential rather than helpful. In this situation, you should ______.

A) keep asking the question in exactly the same way in the rest of your focus groups so as to be consistent across croups
B) avoid asking the question entirely in the rest of your focus groups
C) call your participants after the focus group has ended to ask why they didn't understand the question
D) use their answers to try to understand what confused them, and use that information to revise the question for future groups

Question 29

Focus group researchers may decide to use a group exercise to help elicit information. In which stage of the research process do they make this decision?

A) data collection
B) operationalizing
C) sampling
D) analysis

Question 30

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?

A) exploration
B) evaluation
C) imagine
D) ranking

Question 31

You are conducting research on single dads' challenges in balancing work and family. During the focus groups, you give the group a set of cards with different daily challenges they face and ask them to rank them from most difficult to least difficult to overcome. Which type of group exercise are you using?

A) exploration
B) evaluation
C) imagine
D) ranking

Question 32

You are conducting research on single dads' challenges in balancing work and family. During the focus groups, you ask the participants if they were the principal of their children's school, what changes they would make to their children's school life to make it easier for working parents to meet their children's needs. Which type of group exercise are you using?

A) exploration
B) evaluation
C) imagine
D) ranking

Question 33

As the participants for your focus group begin to arrive, you notice that two of the participants seem to already be best friends. What is the best course of action?

A) allow both participants to stay but seat them next to one another so that they feel comfortable
B) allow both participants to stay but seat them directly across from one another, so they are less inclined to speak to one another
C) thank both participants for their time, but politely let them know that you can't have friends together in a group because it violates confidentiality rules, and ask which wants to stay and participate
D) politely ask that both participants to leave to avoid making them decide which will stay

Question 34

As the participants for your focus group begin to arrive, you notice that two of the participants seem to already be casual acquaintances. What is the best seating arrangement?

A) seat them next to one another so that they feel comfortable
B) seat them directly across from one another, so they are less inclined to speak to one another
C) seat them a few people away from one another so that they have a hard time making eye contact or whispering to each other
D) none of these--ask one to leave so it doesn't matter where they sit

Question 35

Which of the following actions should you take to protect the confidentiality of participants in your focus group?

A) warn each participant that their confidentiality could potentially be breached by another participant
B) assign pseudonyms to each participant so that the others don't know their names
C) tell each participant that they may ask for the recording device to be turned off at any time
D) avoid asking personal questions so that your participants feel comfortable

Question 36

Why is it an ethical issue for people to participate in a focus group with someone they already know?

A) They may be less likely to answer the questions truthfully.
B) They are more likely to break confidentiality by telling people outside the group what the other person said.
C) They may seem cliquey.
D) They are likely to agree with everything the other person says.

Question 37

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

A) in person
B) by written letter
C) by email
D) by phone

Question 38

When considering pretesting your questions and activities for focus group research you should ______.

A) pretest the material on your research team
B) pretest the material on people similar to your participants
C) avoid pretesting for exploratory research so that you are genuinely surprised by the results
D) pretest exercises but avoid pretesting questions so as not to waste people's time on easy questions

Question 39

As your focus group participants begin to arrive, and you should ______.

A) quietly study their interactions with one another from afar
B) begin asking the participants questions individually before the focus group begins
C) introduce the participants to one another and encourage casual conversation among them
D) ask the participants to be seated and wait for everyone else to arrive

Question 40

If there is a moment of silence after someone finishes discussing a question, the moderator should ______.

A) continually ask questions to keep the conversation going
B) remain quiet to encourage participation from others
C) interject their own thoughts on the question to build rapport
D) call on someone who hasn't spoken much

Question 41

You are conducting focus group research to understand how the meaning of the term "white-washed" is negotiated within the black community. Your focus group includes both Black and biracial participants. Which type of notetaking might give you some insight into group dynamics?

A) recording nonverbal behaviors
B) noting the most important points of what each participant says
C) creating a concept map
D) noting points that are discussed and how often

Question 42

You are conducting focus group research to understand how the new marijuana laws are affecting rural communities. Which type of note-taking might give you some insight into group dynamics?

A) recording nonverbal behaviors
B) the first few words of what each person says
C) creating a concept map
D) noting points that are discussed and how often

Question 43

. Which type of pattern in data analysis is the most likely to be influenced by group think?

A) magnitude
B) structure
C) frequencies
D) processes

Question 44

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?

A) code it as a frequency
B) ask the men explicitly about why they haven't brought it up
C) use it as a negative case in your analysis
D) exclude it from your analysis since it was only talked about in some groups

Question 45

Explain why focus group research is a good data collection method for exploratory research.

Question 46

Compare and contrast focus group research with what you know about observation and interview research. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of focus group research?

Question 47

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?

Question 48

List four reasons why a researcher may prefer to conduct a structured focus group, rather than an unstructured focus group.

Question 49

Write a research question appropriate for basic focus group research.

Question 50

Write a research question appropriate for applied focus group research.

Question 51

Briefly explain why researchers using focus groups for basic or applied research might prefer to keep the group between 5 and 8 participants.

Question 52

You are conducting focus group research with employees at a mid-sized company to explore the ways that they might imagine restructuring the workplace to improve work-life balance. Your literature review has suggested that the answers to this question may vary greatly between men and women and between the upper and lower wage earners (between management and sales, for example). What factors should you consider during sampling? How many groups would you decide to conduct and what would be the composition of those groups? Explain your decisions.

Question 53

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

Question 54

Explain why it's more important to consider compensating participants or providing other incentives for participation in focus group research than when using other methods of research.

Question 55

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

Question 56

Why is it important in focus group research to build rapport not only between the moderator and participants but between the participants as well?

Question 57

Describe two strategies that a moderator might use to prevent someone from dominating the conversation.

Question 58

Summarize each of the five types of notetaking during a focus group.

Question 59

Briefly summarize why it is important to have your participants summarize main points at the end of the focus group.

Question 60

Describe the first step of data analysis for focus group research, beginning immediately after the participants leave.

Question 61

Describe three types of patterns that focus group researchers should look for during analysis that interview researchers may not.

Question 62

You are conducting evaluation research of an after-school program designed to increase college enrollment of graduating students. Survey results over the past five years show that the majority of junior and senior students in the program answered that they would be "very likely" to enroll in college after graduation, however, you find that actual enrollment rates of graduating seniors who have participated in the program is low. You have decided to use focus group research including students, faculty, and parents to find out how they imagine that the program might better serve students and meet its goal of increasing college enrollment.
Write a research question appropriate for this scenario.

Question 63

Is your research basic or applied?

Question 64

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

Question 65

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

Question 66

How many focus groups would you conduct? Why?

Question 67

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

Question 68

Conceptualize one important concept from your research question.

Question 69

Operationalize one question or group exercise for a structured focus group that you would use to elicit important information during your focus groups.

Question 70

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

Question 71

You are conducting focus group research with people in inter-ethnic relationships. You are interested in the degree to which the individuals' ethnic identities change over time, and how the participants explain their identities. You will want to study a diverse sample of people to get an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon and so will include people from many different ethnic groups, those in inter-ethnic LBTQ+ relationships, and those of varying socioeconomic statuses.
Write a research question appropriate for this scenario.

Question 72

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?

Question 73

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

Question 74

How many focus groups would you conduct? Why?

Question 75

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

Question 76

Conceptualize one important concept from your research question.

Question 77

Operationalize one question or group exercise for a structured focus group that you would use to elicit important information during your focus groups.

Question 78

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

Question 79

You are conducting focus group research to better understand how household and parental duties are negotiated between parents in families where both parents work full time. You are particularly interested in how these families experience pressures to conform to gender roles, and how the meaning of "parenthood" is negotiated within the family.
Write a research question appropriate for this scenario.

Question 80

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?