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The aim of the essay is to present an understanding of the various principles and process of research methodology in relation to the article, “Poverty in Global Perspective: Is Shame a Common Denominator?” by Robert Walker et al (2013). The focus of the work is on the psychosocial dimensions of poverty based on the experiences of the adults and children who live in utter poverty in seven countries like Uganda, India, China, Pakistan, South Korea and urban Norway. The living experiences of the sampled population were similar to all the countries that were covered as a part of the survey. The results of the survey confirm that shame is a negative psychological feeling that results from the persistence of poverty. This essay will focus on the research methodology used, focusing on the research philosophy, and use of qualitative approach chosen for this study. The essay would also evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the methods that are used in the research by focusing on the research questions and validating the claims made by the article. Additionally, the essay would also consider the contribution of another quantitative method that would be a potential research question by discussing strengths and weaknesses.
The article sets out to ascertain the relationship between poverty and shame and cross cultural
or national outlook and attitude towards poverty by understanding shame as a puscholcoial
dimension of poverty in different societies. The main aim of the research project is to focus
on the living experiences and perspectives of the people in poverty in the countries that are
selected for the study. The concept of poverty and how it evokes shame among the sampled
population is conducted as a part of the study. The analysis based on the inputs collected
from the sample, showed that poverty was associated with the social stigma that lead to
shame. Very social research involves the scientific research process, which would consist of
8 layers of the research process, popularly known as research onion. The research onion
proposed by Saunders,Lewis and Thornhill (2007), is a metaphorical term for all the six
stages of research process like researchphilosophies, approach, strategy, time horizon, choice,
techniques and procedures (Mark Saunders, 2009) . The present research would adopt the interpretivism philosophy that would also use the inductive approach. The strategy used for
the study involves qualitative research study. Qualitative research would involve analysis that
would not involve statistical and mathematical models. The time horizon used for the study is
cross sectional time horizon. The primary data collected through interviews conducted with
the respondents would be usedfor analysis. The research also relies on secondary data for
analysis and interpretation.
Based on the methodology adopted, the researcher arrives at the key findings of the study.
One of the main findings of the study was that lived experiences of the sample in all the
countries participating in the study were very similar and the aspirations of the poor in all
these places were similar despite the economic and cultural differences. The research also
finds that shame was associated with poverty in each of the nations and society studied, even
though they were socio-culturally apart. This sense of shame invariably led to withdraw, self-
loathing, despair, depression, suicidal tendencies and loss of confidence. The psychological
pain arising from the shame as a result of poverty is a common thread among the responses
from majority of the participants. Moreover the psychological sense of shame, although
individually felt, seemed to be imposed by the non-poor upon the poor during the course of
their dealings with them. They are also found to be influenced by the objectives and
implementation of anti-poverty policies by the government. The evidence from the study
confirms the negative consequences of shame which is seen as a factor that makes poverty
persistent and is also the main reason for framing the anti-poverty policies. The findings from
the research are beneficial for international development organisations to frame policies for
poverty alleviation and remove the psychological stigma that is associated with being poor
(Yin, 2011) .
From the analysis of the study, it could be concluded that shame as an emotion, is
physiological and psychological vested in the people, who live in poverty and despair in most
societies. Although poverty has several economic and cultural dimensions, shame, as a
psychosocial dimension continues to be associated with it.
The main question in the present study focus on shame as a psychosocial dimension of
measuring poverty, which will eventually conclude if shame is an emotion associated with
poverty. Since the topic requires an in-depth inquiry and investigation into the sample
population consisting of poor adults and children across the world, the qualitative research appears to be better suited. The researchers have adopted both primary and secondary data
collection methods. The primary data is collected through in-depth interviews with the
participants in the 7 countries that are part of the study. The secondary method of data
consists of an in-depth enquiry into the values associated with poverty and shame as
represented in literature (both academic and non-academic), films and proverbs. The samples
of about 30 volumes from 6 of the 7 countries were taken, with the editions dating as old as
150 years. The select texts were analysed using the New Historicism approach which uses the
discourse techniques. Here, about 30 films from India, Korea and UK were additionally
analysed to supplement the literature study. Additionally, proverbs were collected from
countries like India, China and Uganda, where traditional old sayings held a greater meaning.
The researchers have conducted interviews with adults and children who experience poverty
and as a result shame. This is in-line with the philosophy of interpretivism adopted by the
researchers. The qualitative research has been employed in this case, as the primary data
collection process of interviews are conducted to understand the lived experiences of the
respondents who have experienced poverty and shame. Therefore the use of qualitative
research in this case is justified and in-line with the philosophy adopted by the researchers
(Kura, 2012) .
Qualitative research is a strategy adopted by the social researchers, which is designed to
understand the target audience’s behaviour and perceptions regarding the issue that has been
researched upon. The strategy uses in-depth studies to support the hypothesis and tends to be
more descriptive (Flick, 2009) . The approach is different from a quantitative research where
statistical and mathematical models are used for analysis. Qualitative research is used to gain
in-depth information, evidence and a deep understanding of the social research issues that
have to be researched upon. Qualitative research aims at truthful, first hand reporting and
actual experiences, views or opinions of the sample surveyed. The research methodology
aims at understanding how the participants gain meaning from their experiences or
surroundings and how these factors affect their behaviour (Namey, et al., 2013) .
There are four important research philosophies are positivism, interpretivism, objectivism and
subjectivism. The researcher, by using the interpretivism philosophy, could analyse the
problems in social perspective. The interpretive researchers assume that the access to reality of research can only be possible through language, shared meanings and instruments. The
philosophical idealism includes social constructivism, phenomenology and hermeneutics.
The philosophy of interpretivism is based on the belief that there would be a clear link
between researcher and research subject. The nature of realty of the subject would involve
multiple social constructions. The main goal of interpretive approach is to facilitate better
understanding of the topic while reducing prediction. The research would be specific and
unique. Overall the philosophy of interpretivism focuses on what people think and do, or
what kind of problems they encounter and how they deal with them (Kelliher, 2005) .
In the interpretivism studies the most popular primary methods of data collection are
interviews and observations. Some of the principles of social research use in interpretivism
studies are the principles of hermeneutic circle, principle of contextualisation, principle of
interpretation, principle of abstraction, principle of reasoning, principle of multiple
interpretations and principle of suspicion. Due to the adoption of interpretivism, some of the
areas of qualitative research can be studied in depth. The philosophy of interpretivism is
applied in the present research related to shame and poverty. The qualitative interpretivism
approach is adopted against the backdrop of the research issue that involves the study of
social phenomenon. The understanding of people and the kind of activities that they engage
in are necessary for understanding social behaviour. The qualitative approach is needed to
study the psychosocial dimension of poverty, which is shame. As discussed above,
philosophy of interpretivism must use qualitative research for conducting an in-depth study, it
can be concluded saying that interpretivism is the favoured philosophy is the favoured
philosophy for the study while qualitative research is the appropriate strategy adopted. The
philosophy of interpretivism therefore guides the researcher to explore the topic in depth
(Kasi, 2009) .
Primary method of data collection involves collection of first hand information from the sample population through methods like surveys, interviews, observations and focus groups. The data collected through primary research is new and not been used by any researchers earlier. The current research employs in-depth interviews and focus group technique for gaining primary data. The secondary data collection method involves collection of data from the originator or the creator of primary research. The secondary research uses second hand information available in several public domains like journals, books, and research reports,publications by government agencies and private bodies, and work of other scholars (Kamins, 1993) . Data, in case of secondary research, can be gathered from any source that is available to researcher and public. The current research utilises secondary data from literature, oral sayings like proverbs, and from films. This is also called content analysis. The review of the literature, proverbs and films revealed how people sought to manage their experiences of shame.
The collective anger and shame among the people living in poverty was well bought out by films and the literature, but this was not possible when using the interview and the focus group techniques. The strength of the secondary research was the bias that the respondents exercised while answering the interview questions, was reduced. In the primary data through interview, the respondents focused on survival strategies and were convinced that the system would not change. Therefore, they were of the opinion that even their honest answers would not make any difference to the system or improve their quality of life. Another strength of the usage of secondary data is that the usage of secondary data to the current research is inevitable, as it is important to study the culture of the societies define the emotions attached to poverty, In this respect it can be said that films sayings or literature that are reflective of a society’s culture will be best used. For instance, the authors point out that in societies where display of wealth is associated with higher societal status, the lack of it could cause shame. The authors also cite the case of bankers who are ashamed when they get lesser bonuses than expected. This is the result of the cultural dimensions in the society (Branston & Stafford, 2003) . The weakness of employing the secondary data method was the inability to gauge the emotions of real people. Although films portray emotions of on-screen actors, while literature portrays emotions of the characters that run through our mind, yet it is seen that emotional aspect of poverty which is shame and anger could be gauged well only through primary data collection sources.
The primary data collection method adopted here is the in-depth interviews and focus groups
technique. The biggest strength of using the in-depth interview technique in this study is the
amount of detail that has been gained. The interviews provide much more exhaustive data
when compared to other techniques like survey. In-depth interviews are more suitable when
someone needs detailed information about the thoughts and decision making process of an
individual. In-depth interviews can also be used to complement the focus groups techniques,
when the participants who are not comfortable responding to the questions in a group can
answer in an one to one interview. The strength of the study lies in understanding the
psychological aspect of shame that is associated with poverty. The weakness of interview
techniques is that they are prone to bias and also could be time consuming. In some cases the
researcher or the person undertaking the survey may not be appropriately trained to gain rich
data (King & Horrocks, 2010) . The interview conducted with 30 adult participants is one of
the strengths of the data collection technique in this study. The gender balance that has been
maintained in selecting the sample for the interview also adds to its positive aspects. The
diversity in selecting participants for the interview is also a plus point. One other strength of
the technique was that the interviews were conducted in native languages of the participants
and the conversation was recorded with the prior permission of the participants. The study
also required written consent from participants for the research but this was relaxed in places
where the interviewees were illiterate and where they feared the government surveillance and
action. The limitation of this research is that despite the interviews being conducted with 30
adults across 7 countries, the study continues to be a small scale qualitative research. The
interview technique cannot be used to gather psychosocial details and feelings of young
children who may not be comfortable giving one to one interviews. This limitation can be
addressed using the focus group techniques (Seidman, 2013) .
Focus group techniques were used wherever possible when the researcher chose to have
conversations with children in similar conditions and living in small groups. Children prefer
talking in groups to answering in a one-to-one personal interview. The strength of this
technique is that children could answer in a group with other children sharing the same
mentality and temperament. The advantages of the focus groups technique is that the
researchers can interact with the participants and pose questions and follow up easily. The
results of a focus group interaction are much easier to interpret than the data collected
through other means. The researcher can also get lot of information from facial expression
and gestures, even if the participants do not want to express themselves in words. In this
study the expression and gestures of the children could be easily interpreted by the
researchers and any verbal communication could also be easily analysed. The weaknesses of
the focus group technique are that it cannot be used in isolation. Therefore the technique has
been used along with the in-depth interviews method and the usage of secondary data
(Morgan, 1997) .
Participant observation can be used a qualitative method along with the other techniques discussed above. Observation is the systematic description of events and feelings by the participants in the study. The technique would help the researcher to describe the situation in the context of the research using the feelings and emotions of the participants. Observation methods help the researcher to check the nonverbal expressions of the participants and determine how they communicate with each other. The technique adds validity to the data collection as it complements the use of additional strategies like surveys, interviews and focus groups (Silverman, 2009) . The observation method can be applicable to the current study but it cannot be used in isolation. It is generally seen that the people who live below the poverty line or experience poverty are withdrawn from the mainstream society as they feel inferior and incapable of meeting the expectations of the society. The researcher can use the technique to observe and judge the participants based on the observation technique. The weaknesses of the observational method are that it is subjected to the bias exercised by the researcher. The gender, equality, class and sexuality affects the way the researcher observes and interprets the behaviour of the respondents. The quality of the observation is dependent on the skill of the researcher to observe and interpret and this could vary from person to person (FQS, 2005) .
From the discussion above, it can be said that the present study analysing the psychosocial
dimensions of poverty can be best conducted by employing a qualitative study like the one
carried out in the original article. The children and adults who were interviewed in the
countries have experienced poverty and deprivation. Another finding is the common or
parallel psychosocial responses given by the participants in all the country. The study
required the use of qualitative research as a detailed enquiry into psychology of people who
live and experience poverty can only be possible through in-depth interviews and discussion.
The philosophy of interpretivism is used by the researchers to guide their research process
and therefore qualitative research is validated. The study uses primary and secondary sources
of data to conduct analysis and confirm the hypothesis. The primary data collection technique
of in-depth interview and focus groups are justified in this case as the other technique of
using survey cannot be effective in gaining exhaustive information from the participant. The
observation method is suggested as complimentary technique to collect qualitative data.
However no method can be effectively used in isolation and use of more than one technique
is advised in this case. The secondary sources of data like films and literature shed additional
insights on the topic and hence the content analysis from these sources is justified. The usage
of all these methods in the study has presented a holistic understanding of the researchers on
the thesis question and thereby identified various feelings of shame and despair associated
with poverty.
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