As it is stated by Merriam Webster Dictionary, homophobia is “irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals (Homophobia).”
Advantages and disadvantages of conducting focus groups to research homophobia
The advantages are:
Recognition of authority role of a moderator;
Participants of the groups are able to interact among themselves;
The methodology has dynamic nature;
The research process involves the client personnel;
Utilization of non verbal behavior in a role of a research input;
High level of involvement of the participants in the research;
Better security in terms of traditional focus group research
The disadvantages are:
Participants of the research are influenced by each other;
Focus groups are not projectable in terms of output;
The groups represent artificial environment which influences responses (Focus groups. Issues including advantages and disadvantages).
Advantages and disadvantages of conducting individual interviews to research homophobia
Individual interviews allow using active listening skills during the process of collection of information, designing the questions in the most appropriate way; however, the issue of deriving meaning might be involved, as well as possible lack of sincerity from the part of the respondents (Qualitative reasoning and analysis in applied psychology).
Effectiveness of focus groups or individual interviews for researching homophobia
It is very likely that individual interviews might be more effective in terms of studying homophobia. The reason is that the main disadvantage of the process of interviewing is that people might not always be ready to provide true answers. However, when it comes to phobias or hatred, they are more likely to express their emotions, so the process of interviewing is more effective in studies of homophobia in comparison with focus groups (Chapter nine. Qualitative procedures; Rabionet, 2011).
References
Chapter nine. Qualitative procedures. Retrieved from HYPERLINK "http://shiftfiles.com/files/208771E_QUALRA_Creswell_Ch.9.pdf" http://shiftfiles.com/files/208771E_QUALRA_Creswell_Ch.9.pdf
Focus groups. Issues including advantages and disadvantages. Retrieved from http://focusgroups.pbworks.com/w/page/5677430/Issues%20including%20advan tages%20and%20disadvantages
Homophobia. Merriam Webster Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homophobia
Qualitative reasoning and analysis in applied psychology. Week 4 weekly notes: interviews and collecting data
Rabionet, S., (2011). How I learned to design and conduct semi-structured interviews: an ongoing and continuous journey. The Qualitative Report, 16 (2), …