HSM 421 Week 5 Final Research Paper and Discussions

HSM 421 Week 5 Final Research Paper and Discussions

HSM 421 Week 5 Final Paper: Research Design

HSM 421 Week 5 Discussion 1 – Focus Groups in Homeland Security Preparation: Explain how focus group participants were recruited, how the focus group data was collected, and how the results were analyzed. Assess whether you believe if, and where, any bias may have been recorded in this process. Also address whether you think the results of these samples were representative of the Latino population

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HSM-421 Week 5 Discussion 2 – Elite Interviews: Identify at least two reasons that elite interviewing may not be a sound qualitative research technique in homeland security research. Hypothesize why this technique may be particularly weak in the modern homeland security environment.

 

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

 

 

MORE INFO 

Focus groups and elite interviews in research

Introduction

Focus groups and elite interviews are two different types of qualitative research methods. Focus groups are a group discussion where individuals or small groups interact with each other in an environment where they can freely express their thoughts and opinions, while elite interviews are individual interviews with experts who have specific knowledge about a certain topic.

What is the difference between focus groups and elite interviews?

Focus groups and elite interviews are both qualitative research methods. They’re often used to gather information on a particular topic, but there’s one key difference between them: focus groups are conducted with a group of people, while elite interviews are conducted with only one person.

Both types of interviews have advantages and disadvantages. Focus groups can be useful for generating ideas about what you want to study and how you want to do it, but their size limits the depth of information that can be gathered from them (unless you’re willing to pay for more than five participants). Elite interviews give researchers more time alone with a single respondent—you’ll be able to get into deeper rapport with your respondents if they know that they won’t have anyone else asking questions during their conversation—and also allow researchers to dive into topics that might not come up during focus groups (like personal preferences).

Pros of focus groups.

Focus groups are a great way to gather feedback from large groups of people. They’re also useful for testing out new products and services, as well as gathering information about your target audience’s needs and wants. In addition, focus groups can be useful in getting feedback on your ideas or products before you launch them into the market.

Focus groups can be conducted by phone, email or in person—the choice depends on what you want to do with them (more on this later). You’ll need to find participants who are willing and able to participate in the focus group session; if possible try contacting friends or colleagues first so they know what it is going toward when they agree! Make sure everyone understands their role within the group so there aren’t any misunderstandings throughout things like reading off questions from surveys instead of talking directly with each other which would just take longer than necessary.”

Pros of elite interviews.

Elite interviews are:

• Cost-effective. Focus groups can be very expensive, especially if you want to do multiple sessions with a large group of people. However, elite interviews are much more cost effective in terms of time and resources. With a focus group, it’s common for participants to come from different backgrounds and have varying levels of experience with your product or service (which means there can be more than one topic discussed at any given time). With an elite interview format, however, you’ll only need one person from each area who knows all about your product or service—and therefore doesn’t need as much preparation on their part!

• Targeted. Since everyone attending an elite interview will already know something about what you’re researching (or at least know enough about it), this makes them easier targets for questions related specifically towards those topics during the session itself! For example: “What was your favorite part?” means nothing unless there’s someone sitting across from us saying “Oh yeah! I loved how easy it was!” It also helps prevent wasting time because we don’t waste valuable resources trying out new things before knowing whether they work well together

Cons of focus groups.

Focus groups can be a great way to get a lot of information, but they have some drawbacks. For example:

• Cost: Focus group research is expensive, so you need to make sure that your organization’s budget can handle it. If you’re not sure about the cost of this type of research, contact an expert like [your local library] for advice on what kind of money will be involved in conducting focus groups and how much time those costs might take up on your end.

• Finding participants: It can be difficult finding people who are interested enough in your topic or questionnaires being administered through focus groups to participate at all—especially if there aren’t any incentives offered for doing so (like money). This means that many companies end up without enough participants for their questions regarding their products or services’ effectiveness at working well with others’ lives/needs/wants etc., which makes it even harder for them know how well something works before spending money on implementing changes based off feedback given by individuals who’ve already tried everything else out there first hand experience has shown us this isn’t necessarily true either…

Cons of elite interviews.

Elite interviews are expensive to conduct. They can be difficult to get people to participate in and often require a follow up interview, which is more time consuming than most participants are willing to spend on the project. In addition, it’s hard for elite interviewers (or even non-elite ones) to get people who have not been interviewed before agree to participate in future studies.

Focus groups and elite interviews have distinct pros and cons, and can be used for different research purposes.

Focus groups and elite interviews have distinct pros and cons, and can be used for different research purposes.

Focus groups are better for getting a broad range of opinions and ideas. A focus group is like a conversation among friends, with each participant answering questions or sharing their thoughts on an issue while they listen to others’ opinions.

Elite interviews are better for getting in-depth information about an individual person’s experience with an issue or problem (rather than the group as a whole). An elite interviewer asks questions that elicit more detailed answers from the interviewee, who may be more comfortable talking about themselves than other people in the same situation would be—and therefore may provide you with more detail about what happened before, during, or after your topic of interest was raised at work/school/home etcetera.”

Conclusion

Focus groups and elite interviews are both useful tools in research. They can be used together or separately, depending on your research needs, but both are essential for gathering data from a diverse group of people. Focus groups have the advantage of being more accessible to researchers who are not interested in long-term relationships with participants—and they offer more opportunities for immediate feedback. Elite interviews require more time, planning, and preparation than focus groups do; however, they provide researchers with valuable insights into how their stakeholders think about issues that matter most to them.