Focus Groups as Qualitative Research

From the First Edition:

"Continues the high quality of previously published volumes in the Sage series on qualitative research methods. . . . Useful and instructive. . . . David L. Morgan deals with a number of practical issues concerning the conduct of focus groups, such as the degree of moderator involvement and group size. . . . Provides ample illustrations . . . and thought-provoking advice for researchers and students."

--Contemporary Sociology

"David L. Morgan′s book is unique among current offerings on focus groups because it is directed at academic users of focus groups rather than practitioners. His account is also unique in its critical attitude toward contemporary market research applications of focus groups. . . . The book succeeds best at providing fuel for scholarly debates about what group interviews can and cannot contribute to research."

--Journal of Marketing Research

"Provides the reader with a very clear and practical overview of the focus group as a method for field research. . . . Well-written and informative. . . . Providing the history and methodological rationale for the method. . . . Attests to the benefits or strengths of focus group research on the basis of personal opinion and testimonial evidence."

--Personnel Psychology

Only a decade ago, focus groups were virtually unknown to social scientists. Now their use in academic as well as outside settings is vast and ever growing. David L. Morgan has extensively revised and updated his best-selling Focus Groups as Qualitative Research, providing an excellent guide for researchers in every discipline. He begins his comprehensive revision with an updated introduction that offers a discussion of current social science approaches to focus groups. Expanded coverage on the comparison of focus groups to individual interviews follows, as well as more on the strengths and weaknesses of focus groups (Chapter 2). Chapter 3′s section on self-contained focus groups has also been expanded to reflect the increased range of research being done in this area. The next chapter has been thoroughly reorganized both to provide an overview of what a typical set of groups looks like as well as new insights on research design. Similarly, Chapters 5 and 6 have been reorganized and broadened to include examples from social scientists who have established their own practices and methodological research on focus groups. This best-selling research guide concludes with future directions and references that take into account the explosive growth in focus groups as a research tool for all social scientists.

Reflecting the many changes that have occurred in the study of focus groups over the years, Focus Groups as Qualitative Research, Second Edition is for qualitative researchers in every academic discipline as well as those in nonacademic settings.

David L. Morgan received his PhD in sociology from the University of Michigan, and is currently an emeritus professor in the Department of Sociology at Portland State University. He is an inter-disciplinary research methodologist, working in both qualitative research and mixed methods research. In addition to artificial intelligence, his research interests include focus groups and mixed methods research. He is the author of more than fifty peer-reviewed articles and author or editor of nine books on research methods; he is currently the series editor for the Qualitative Research Methods Series from Sage (the “little blue books”).