| Abstract: | Marcia B. Cohen, University of New England, School of Social Work, Biddeford, Maine, USA, 04005. E-Mail: mcohen{at}mailbox.une.edu. Kendra J. Garrett, Department of Social Work, The University of St Thomas, St Paul, Minnesota, USA 55105. E-Mail: kjgarrett{at}stthomas.edu. Summary Focus groups, originally used in fields such as marketing andconsumer research, are rapidly gaining popularity as a researchmethodology in the social sciences. It is interesting to notethat most of the scholarly work on focus groups continues tocome from business rather than the social sciences. Few researchershave discussed the differing purposes and goals in social scienceand consumer research (Ospina, 1994; Moore, 1996). Furthermore,the literature on focus group research rarely utilizes socialwork knowledge of group dynamics or group facilitation skills.Rather, the literature on focus groups tends to give guidelinesfor leading groups, telling focus group facilitators what todo and what not to do in leading such groups. We believe thatthese guidelines, while generally helpful, can lead to rigidityon the part of focus group leaders. We suggest that, in socialwork research, focus group facilitators should use their knowledgeof group dynamics and the values of individualization and empathyto modify focus group rules where appropriate. This paper describes part of a qualitative study of client/workerrelationships in residential mental health settings. Duringthe course of this research, group work principles came intoconflict, at times, with recommended guidelines for focus groupleaders. The paper illustrates how insights gleaned from groupwork theory and practice can enable a researcher to break focusgroup rules responsibly, thus bringing greater depth to thedata gathered and allowing the researcher to be more sensitiveto the needs of focus group participants. |
