Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research

The Fourth Edition of the bestselling Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research offers an easy-to-ready overview of sound focus group practices. Authors Richard A. Krueger & Mary Anne Casey describe how one can set up and conduct quality and effective focus group interviews. The process depicted is unbiased, non-judgmental and is respectful of all views. It is a deliberate and systematic way of listening that is helpful to public and private organizations as they listen to stakeholders, customers, and employees. This book cuts through the theory and gives hand-on advice to those who are seeking to actually conduct a focus group. It is most helpful for conducting focus groups for research or evaluation with public, non-profit, educational, health, human service, and religious organizations. Key Features Offers the latest on telephone and Internet focus groups Provides suggested focus group questions that help students construct quality questions that engage participants and produce dependable and valid results. Gives solid information on organizational focus groups Presents ways on how to recruit participants to the focus group Contains a number of practical tips that actually work. It is written for the person who has to plan, recruit, develop questions, moderate, analyze and report the results. Incorporates icons throughout the book that offer tips, examples, additional resources and others bits of practical information. Intended Audience This book is appropriate for a variety of research methods and evaluation courses in departments such as education, sociology, political science, journalism, business & marketing, public administration, and public health.