University Data Collection Method Critical Reflection Report

This report provides a critical reflection on the focus group method for data collection, a primary data collection technique. The report begins with an introduction to data collection methods in research, highlighting the value of primary data. It then focuses on focus groups, defining them and providing an overview of their application, which involves gathering feedback from a selected group of people. The report describes the process, including screening questions and guided discussions. The main body of the report critically evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of focus groups. Strengths include valuable customer feedback and demographic diversity, while weaknesses involve potential influence from dominant group members. The report concludes that focus groups are valuable for gathering customer feedback to understand target markets, despite certain limitations. The report references several academic sources to support its analysis.

Running head: CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON DATA COLLECTION METHOD
Critical reflections on Data Collection Method
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON DATA COLLECTION METHOD
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Chosen Method: Focus Groups..............................................................................................2
A brief overview of the method.............................................................................................2
Critique the strength and weakness of the method in its application as for the discipline,
professional and research interests.........................................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
The gathering of data from different sources during a study or a research happens to
be one of the most symbolical aspects. The gathering of data and information can occur
during a research process but the procedure by which the data is gathered can be varied
(Nyumba et al. 2018). There are several procedures by which a data is collected and there are
even more ways by which these are applied within a research. Any research considers the
collection of data to be one of the most valuable assets within a thorough study. This is
because, having a theoretical research is provided a much more detailed depth after gathering
the primary data from the reliable sources. Following would be a detailed critical analysis of
one of these data collection methods, that is, the focus group in this report. This will include
the brief overview of the data collection procedure using a focus group, with the detailed idea
of the strength and weaknesses following the application for the discipline, professional
inputs and the research interests.
Chosen Method: Focus Groups
In theoretical or linguistic description, the focus groups can be defined as a particular
chosen set of people that are assembled together for a discussion (Young 2019). This
assembly or group of people is gathered for the provision of information regarding any
campaign, study or feedback. This method is chosen for helping the accumulation of
information for any market researches that needs to be conducted. The detailed analysis of
the focus groups and the way that these are conducted would be described as below:
A brief overview of the method
One of the Primary Data Collection method with the utilization of the primary sources
are the Focus groups where the gathering of feedback from the group of people would be
required for a study to set opinions about any study topic (Kamberelis, Dimitriadis and

3CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON DATA COLLECTION METHOD
Welker 2018). Mostly, these are done when there is a requirement for having a feedback for
or against a product from the customers. This is practised in a proper and systematic way
where the participation is not forced and the willing participants are made accustomed to the
discussion subject by the researches and then throughout the processes, they are guided by
the facilitator (Newcomer, Hatry and Wholey 2015). These are mostly done so that under
proper circumstances, the people that have been willing to be participating in the focus group
interview and data collection techniques are mostly gathered together for their opinions and
they are provided with certain product, features or surveys to provide their feedback on their
utilities.
These research methods for the collection of data are not only followed by certain
questionnaires but they are also dependent upon the structured moderated discussions
gathering mostly about 5 to 10 participants (Carey and Asbury 2016). The procedure follows
through the set format where the procedure begins with the participant going through a
supposed set of screening questions. This makes the researchers understand their certainty
about their target audience or customer for the products or services. The people in the focus
group are guided through the entire interview process and the research lasts for about one to
one and a half hour.
Critique the strength and weakness of the method in its application as for the
discipline, professional and research interests
There are several advantages and disadvantages about the Focus group methods in
their application and utility during their disciplines, professional use and the research
interests and these can be figured out with the description provided to find out the advantages
and the disadvantages for submitting the focus group as the method for the representation of
the collected data.

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Strengths of the Focus Groups: The primary strength of the focus groups is that it
provides a valuable information about the gathering of the feedback about a product or a
service to the customer. If not for a focus group, this could have been an extreme lengthy,
time consuming and economically challenging procedure (Reisner et al. 2018). The focus
groups are conducted in such a way that the demographics gathered for the procedure can be
extremely widespread. This is understandable with the preliminary questionnaires as well.
The primary set of the questionnaires that these focus groups have to answer makes the
researchers understand the type of the focus groups that they need to gather for the
conduction of the feedback survey (Hancock et al. 2016). The understanding of the type of
the audience is extremely necessary or else there could be a whole lot of invaluable
information added to the research, which is eliminated with the utilization of the Focus
Groups.
Weaknesses of the Focus Groups: Other than providing the researchers with several
information about the feedback generated from a specific group of people, there are several
criticisms generated about the idea of a developed focus group where the influences of the
probable dominant people in the group can divulge the actual information (Woodyatt,
Finneran and Stephenson 2016). There are incidences found, where the apparent dominant
members in the group had made the people change their honest opinion or feedback about
anything. This has further manipulated the overall outcome of the research as the data
collected were not true their original self as it should have been. However, these occurrences
of the utilization of any person or dominant set of people in a Focus Group can be controlled.
Conclusion
Therefore, in conclusion, it can be said that the research methodology of a focus
group happens to provide valuable feedback induced information in any research. It has been

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found that mostly these are identified to be the provision of the feedback towards a service or
a product from a group of people before they are introduced to the market. This forms a
useful tool for the researcher for the customer feedback during the lifecycle of a product.
Despite there are several weaknesses about the utility, professionalism and interests of the
research during the utility, the utility of the Focus group as a research method is extremely
useful for gathering valuable data about the feedback from the customer to understand the
target market and audience.

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References
Carey, M.A. and Asbury, J.E., 2016. Focus group research. Routledge.
Hancock, M.E., Amankwaa, L., Revell, M.A. and Mueller, D., 2016. Focus group data
saturation: A new approach to data analysis. The Qualitative Report, 21(11), p.2124.
Kamberelis, G., Dimitriadis, G. and Welker, A., 2018. Focus group research and/in figured
worlds. The Sage handbook of qualitative research, pp.692-716.
Newcomer, K.E., Hatry, H.P. and Wholey, J.S., 2015. Focus group interviewing. Handbook
of practical program evaluation, 506.
Nyumba, O., Wilson, T., Derrick, K., C.J. and Mukherjee, N., 2018. The use of focus group
discussion methodology: Insights from two decades of application in conservation. Methods
in Ecology and evolution, 9(1), pp.20-32.
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., 2018. Sensitive health topics with underserved
patient populations: Methodological considerations for online focus group
discussions. Qualitative health research, 28(10), pp.1658-1673.
Woodyatt, C.R., Finneran, C.A. and Stephenson, R., 2016. In-person versus online focus
group discussions: A comparative analysis of data quality. Qualitative health research, 26(6),
pp.741-749.
Young, V., 2019. Focus on focus groups. College & Research Libraries News, 54(7), pp.391-
394.