Τhe Dictionary of #Psychology and #Psychoanalysis Trends 7

   

#Focus #group (1956): 

A small group of people selected and assembled for #research purposes, to participate in an organised discussion, under the guidance of a moderator, of an issue or topic of which they have personal #experience. 

Focus groups were first proposed by the US sociologist Robert King #Merton (1910-2003) and co-authors in 'The Focused Interview': A Manual of Problems and Procedures (1956), and they have had a long history in #market research.

They have been used to a lesser extent in psychology, generally, in the tradition of qualitative research, when #interaction between group members is felt to add an important element that is lacking in other types of #interviews.

Source: Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Psychology - Andrew M. Colman (4th edition, 2015: Oxford University Press).