Focus Groups in Research Methods

This assignment delves into the benefits and drawbacks of utilizing focus groups in research, particularly within health and medicine. It discusses how focus groups facilitate group communication to generate data, allowing researchers to understand diverse viewpoints and experiences. While acknowledging potential ethical considerations and limitations, the essay emphasizes the effectiveness of focus groups in revealing sub-cultural values, exploring emotional nuances, and providing insights into patient populations.

Running head: REASEARCH METHODS.
REASEARCH METHODS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1REASEARCH METHODS
Article 3- Qualitative Research: Introducing focus groups
The essay concentrates on one of the most effective research, which is known as the
focus group methodology. The focus of this type of process is on the groups. The focus is on
particular group. The group on which there is focus it is having immense amount of
advantage. The focus groups are having benefit for the researchers in the fields of health and
medicine. Apart from this, there is no discrimination between the literate and the literate and
the illiterate people. This includes the techniques in the health and research centre.
According to Flick (2013), the focus groups are a form of interview, which is based
on the communication between the participants of the research in order to generate the data. It
is assumed by many critics as that it is the convenient way to reach to the groups. They are
encouraged to talk and express their views. They were mostly used in the fields of
communication studies like the television, media. They are also popular for assessing the
health service sectors. They are used in analyzing the experience of the people to understand
the effects of the disease. It is also used to understand the behavior of the staffs and their
needs. They are also used to study the experience of the people regarding a disease (Reisner
et al. 2017).
Other critics have opposed this. According to Tauringana, Mbah and Alexander
(2017), the main purpose to apply this method is to ensure that it helps the people to make
their views clear on the ways that would comparatively less easily be accessible in a face-to-
face interview. It helps the participants to put forward their quarries and get the answers of it
instantly. It helps the researchers to access different types of communities. It includes
different types of communication. The communication sometimes includes the jokes, it also
includes the arguments, teasing and all other communications that are part of a person`s daily
communication. This is important because each person is having variety of emotions. It is

2REASEARCH METHODS
important in case of every individual to explore all the shades of characters of a person.
Therefore, this process is the best as it is able to explore all sides of a group and individuals.
This helps in highlighting the sub-cultural values and the norms of every community. The
emotions of humor are explored through it. This is done to bring out the reason of different
sections of the population makes use of different forms of health services.
However, from the analysis of the article this can be stated that the pitfall of such
method is that the norms of the groups sometimes make the voices of the individual`s
contention. The other group of people from complaining about something sometimes stops
the group people. It highlighted the conditions of the people and their experience. It showed
the fear of being punished among all the individuals in the group (Albertazzi and Cobley
2013).
The biggest disadvantage of the theory is that it raised many ethical issues. It limited
the usefulness of the research. In spite of all the disadvantages, it has many advantages and
merits. It is the most successful and the most effective form of research. This is the final
understanding of the article, which is based on the past years, which can be rectified using the
effective measures.

3REASEARCH METHODS
REFERENCES
Flick, U. ed., 2013. The SAGE handbook of qualitative data analysis. Sage.
Reisner, S.L., Randazzo, R.K., White Hughto, J.M., Peitzmeier, S., DuBois, L.Z., Pardee,
D.J., Marrow, E., McLean, S. and Potter, J., 2017. Sensitive Health Topics With Underserved
Patient Populations: Methodological Considerations for Online Focus Group
Discussions. Qualitative Health Research, p.1049732317705355.
Tauringana, V., Mbah, M. and Alexander, P., 2017. Interrogating the importance and
awareness of NSS improvement initiatives: a case study of final-year undergraduate
students. Journal of Further and Higher Education, pp.1-21.
Albertazzi, D. and Cobley, P., 2013. The media: an introduction. Routledge.