Introduction
There are several effects of issuing food stamps to people who are faced with abject poverty. The major effects are economic. These effects vary depending on location, eating habits, income and other socio-economic activities.
In my research, I will find out and analyze various effects of issuing these food stamps. To achieve objectives of the research, quantitative methods will be used.
In states with high poverty levels, the government spends millions of dollars to ensure adults and children are not faced with food insecurity. Various interventions are used including food stamps.
These interventions may have economic effects depending on the number of people placed under the program in an area. Food stamps program boost local economies by increasing beneficiariesâ purchasing power. The effects on local economies are both direct and indirect.
For instance, if beneficiaries buy food from groceries, there will be increased employment opportunities in groceries and industries which supply such stores with the goods. There are indirect and induced economic effects of food stamps too.
When groceries increase sales, industries increase their demand for packaging, transport and other services. These are induced economic effects of issuing food stamps of people faced with poverty (Bishop et al. 1996).
Research Method
To find out and analyze these and other economic effects, suitable research method will be used. Qualitative data collection method is best suited for this research (Lofland et al. 2006).
Considering the nature of participants expected, a combination of structured and unstructured interviews will be used. Structured part of the interview will help to get specific answers to research questions.
Unstructured part of the interview will help the interviewers to ask questions which had not been planned. The interviewers will engage the participants using random question when it is necessary during and after the structured interview (Minichiello et al. 1990).
This method would be the most suitable because of the large number of participants to be involved in collection of data. Furthermore, personal views would be needed to. Interviewers will follow a given guide but they will not restrict respondents from straying away from expected answers.
Both closed ended and open ended questions will be asked. Participant will be introduced or trained before commencement of the interviews. Since participants will be allowed to elaborate their answers, tapes will be used to record the information.
This will allow interviewers to have all the information which will be transcripted later. Questions shall be asked only when the interviewer feels it is appropriate to ask them.
Structured Interview
For structured interview, a list of questions will be prepared before. Some of the questions will be closed-ended, while others will be open-ended. The closed-ended ones will require participants to give specific answers or figures.
For instance, some questions will require respondents to answer by saying either âyesâor âno.â Closed-ended questions will be used to get information about employment status, income, family size and age of respondents. Sometimes interviewees will be required to elaborate their answers.
Unstructured Interview
In this type of interview neither questions nor the answers are predetermined (Minichiello et al. 1990). During the interview, interviewers will have enough room to adjust some questions which had earlier been planned.
During this time, interviewers will have to exercise a lot of control on the nature of questions they ask. The interviewer will have to be highly responsive to individual differences of participants and situational changes.
To allow respondents to speak their minds, the interviewer will have to start with broad open ended question the narrowed them to specific. Interviewees will have the opportunity to explain what they feel (Kvale, 1996).
A combination of the two methods will enable interviewers to get the required data. All interviewers will have the freedom to choose the extent of exercising either structured or unstructured methods to get the needed data.
When an interviewer feels all the questions have been answered, he or she will choose to end the interview (Minichiello et al. 1990).
The interviews can ask their respondents if there is anything they want to add or if they have a general comment. Finally, they will thank the interviewees for their time and information they have given.
Issues and Problems Which Might Emerge During Research
Various issues and problems are expected to emerge during data collection. These issues may hinder the process of acquiring necessary data.
Some of the problems will be associated with interviewers, while the others will be associated with interviewees. Some of the issues expected to emerge are discussed below.
Unexpected Participant Behavior
Interviewers are likely to encounter participantâs behavior which had not been expected and planned for earlier. Such behaviors include participants being late, eating, watching television, attending to children and entertaining pets during the interview.
These behaviors and lack of conducive environment may reduce concentration of interviewees. As a result, some of the answers provided will be inaccurate.
Consequences of Interviewerâs Own Actions
Some actions of interviewers are likely to make participants uncomfortable during the interview. Such actions create suspicions between interviewer and interviewee. Discussion of Religious beliefs and political affiliations should be avoided before, during and after the interview (Kvale, 1996).
Interviewers can also talk too much or interfere with participants instead of allowing them to finish what they are saying. Making of certain assumptions before starting the interview can jeopardize the quality of interview.
Phrasing and Negotiating Questions
It is difficult to keep participants focused on research topic which had been introduced. Open-ended questions may not be well phrased allowing participants to discuss irrelevant issues. Interviewer might be forced to keep reminding participants of the limitation of the interview topic.
If a participant fails to focus on research questions, a lot of unnecessary conversation will be recorded and subsequently transcripted.
Since people understand explanation differently, phrasing questions might not give a desired response. However, when rephrased, a different response is given.
Dealing with Sensitive Issues
During the interview, interviewers may be required to ask questions touching on sensitive issues. Interview questions might remind participants of painful events. As a result, a participant may refuse to respond due to his or her emotional situation.
Interviewers will have to comfort participants first before continuing with the interview (Anderson & Hatton, 2000).
Confidentiality Issues
Some participants do not want their personal information to be revealed in public or to any third person. Interviewers will have to counter such issues frequently. Certificate of confidentiality will be obtained to ensure that participants are confident of secrecy.
Some people have engaged in illegal activities which they might mention during interview (Anderson & Hatton, 2000). Therefore, interviewers will be obliged to keep utmost secrecy of information provided by their participants.
Transcription Issues
After interviews have been conducted, interviewers will embark of an important job of transcription. Various challenges are expected to emerge during this activity. Unclear pronunciation, confusing phrases and poor use of vocabularies can lead to poor interpretation of the information collected.
Research Theory
In this research, grounded theory will be used instead of using existing ones. I will set aside existing theories to allow a new theory to emerge after collection and analysis of data. This will enable a theory to emerge without interference.
The theory developed will depend on prevailing situation on the ground. Responsiveness of the theory is aimed at contextual values and not through my own values (Egan, 2002). It will be necessary to formulate a local understanding of the area where the research will be conducted.
Although theory development might be influenced by contextual factors like time and culture, its introduction will present possibilities of generalization.
The theory will be discovered entirely by use of collected data. Therefore, preconceived notions will be put aside. Clear understanding of the problems, issues and topic to be researched, will be sufficient to facilitate an emerging theory (Egan, 2000).
Emerging impressions will be established from evidence, conceptualized data and analysis of new relationships between concepts.
Message Conveyed To the Audience
In this research, the researcherâs aim is to convey important facts about positive effects of issuing food stamps to poor people. People in poor neighborhoods do not have enough disposable income. This has forced them to reduce their expenditure on food, clothing, housing and leisure.
In some states, parents have been forced to reduce their expenditure on food by skipping lunch and buying less nutritious food for their children.
Issuing of food stamp to people faced with abject poverty will have a positive effect on local economies and improve health of children and adults (Bishop et al. 1996).
It is important for people in leadership to know that food stamps enable people in poor neighborhoods to engage in positive economic activities due to availability of disposable income. Economic effects of issuing food stamps to poor people are not just individual but also local.
Activities associated with food production, distribution and consumption will increase leading to emergence of job opportunities for the jobless. This will in turn improve productivity and overall improvement of local economy.
The reader need to know that through food stamps, health of people improve because of consumption of nutritious food.
Issuing of food stamps alleviate poor people from situation of food insecurity and improve individual and local economies. Through this research, economic effects of issuing food stamps will be known.
Generating Interest for the Research
Conducting research on unfamiliar topic or location might be difficult for researchers and their assistants (Berg & Lune, 2011). Research activities involve several tasks which are demoralizing to people who are not determined.
Problems encountered during data collection and analysis may make people to lose interest. To generate interest in the research, one need to associate him or herself with people who are affected or related to the issues, problems or topic being researched (Deci, 1995).
By developing a good understanding of the research topic and the people who are the subjects of the study, one does not need to put much effort which leads to improved interest in the research.
According to Deci (1995), colleagues who are involved in the same or similar research influence development of interest. Lead researcher will be demoralized if people who are working with him or her are not interested or do not show commitment.
Therefore, it is good to associate with people who are interested with the topic being study. When choosing research partners, one needs to select from people who have a good understanding of the topic and area of study. This will help to generate interest for the research.
Reading journals, magazines, blogs, books and watching documentaries based on topic under research will boost interest on the topic to be researched (Berg & Lune, 2011).
When one has enough information about a topic under research, interest to know more will develop. Good interest on the topic will lead to quality research (Deci, 1995).
My Writing Style
The writing style I have used in this paper is expository. At the beginning of this research paper, expository writing style is used to provide an introduction. Facts about economic effects of issuing food stamps to those in poverty are summarized (Meer, 2011).
The method of carrying out the research has also been explained. The laid down procedure is a fact which has been proved and used by researchers in the past. The research method has a main idea and supportive details.
Semi-structured interview is the main idea, while structured and unstructured are supporting ideas. Furthermore, semi-structured interview has been explained as a process.
Issues and problems arising have been given as anticipations. In past researches, these issues have risen. This makes them facts which have been proven.
Although no figures have been used, the facts stated have been confirmed by previous researchers. Therefore, most of them are expected to come up during the study.
The whole paper has been broken down into logical sub-topics. After introduction, method of study has been explained.
Secondly, the expected problems and issues which might emerge have been given. The type of theory to be used in the research has been discussed after emerging issues. This is a clear order of planned activities signifying expository writing style.
References
Anderson, D.C., & Hatton, D.C. (2000). Accessing vulnerable populations for research. West journal of Nursing Research, 22(2), 244-251.
Berg, B., & Lune, H. (2011). Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences (8th ed.). Pentice Hall.
Bishop, J., Formby, J., & Lester, Z. (1996). The Impact of Food Stamps on US Poverty in the 1980s: A Marginal Dominance Analysis. Economica, 63(250), 141-162.
Deci, L.E. (1995). Why we do what we do: Understanding self motivation. New York: Penguin Group.
Egan, M.T. (2000). Grounded Therory Research and Theory Building. Advanced developing Human Resources, 4(3), 277-295.
Kvale, S. (1996). Interviews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Thousand Oaks, CA:Sage.
Lofland, J., Snow, D., Anderson, L., & Lofland, L. (2006). Analyzing Social Settings (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Meer, H. (2011). Four Types of Writing Styles: Expository, Descriptive, Persuasive and Narrative. Web.
Minichiello, V., Aroni, R., Timewell, E., & Alexander, L. (1990). In-depth Interviewing: Researching people. Hong Kong: Longman Cheshire Pty Limited.