20101126 - Focus Group reporting (Iowa State Univ)

Reporting Words not Numbers In the analysis stage, survey research requires transformation of numbers with statistics (at minimum, it requires the calculation of percentages). The end result is a report featuring graphs and tables. Focus groups, on the other hand, rely upon words spoken by participants. The focus on language earns focus group methodology the label, qualitative (Creswell, 1998). A report based on focus groups will feature patterns formed by words, called themes or perspectives. Researchers must use specific methods to analyze patterns in spoken language (Creswell, 1998). Numerical analysis is not a preferred technique. In fact, it is inappropriate to report the results of focus groups by percentage (e.g., Among the five focus groups, an average of 56 percent of participants mentioned their frustration with the procedures for applying for public assistance). Instead, a focus group result might read like this: Another theme noted in focus groups on housing was the value of the (community) housing market to the participant's current home. Participants frequently mentioned the cost they had paid for their last home…and used this home's cost and amenities as a yardstick against which they measured… housing (in the community under discussion). (Larson and Hegland, 2003). The focus group data in the previous example enable the researcher to determine residents' logic in addition to their judgments. A report of results from focus groups should not present major findings via frequencies or statistics because 'counting' leads readers to believe that percentages or frequencies are true for a much wider population (which they are not). Quantitative survey researchers go to great lengths to design a study so that numerical data generalize to a wider population with mathematical precision. Focus groups method isn't meant to create generalizations of this type and its procedures offer none of the protections that would permit them to do so (Fern, 2001). Source: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/publications/pm1969b.pdf Iowa State University (2004). Focus Group Fundamentals: Methodology Brief. Iowa State University. University Extension, Iowa State University, May 2004.