Multimethod Research Program

Conceptual Overview and Discussion

Controversy exists as to the conditions under which multiple methods should be combined. Some research refers to the incommensurability of research paradigms to advocate the use of methods compatible with the one philosophical standpoint taken. According to Thomas Kuhn, the term paradigm refers to the system of beliefs, values, and techniques shared by a community of researchers. It represents the model of inquiry adopted to acquire knowledge. An identifiable feature of a research paradigm is the consistency between the techniques and methods used with the system of beliefs and values. In fact, three different levels of the use of the term paradigm can be distinguished: the philosophical level, which reflects basic beliefs about the world; the social level, which provides guidelines about how the researcher should undertake the project; and the technical and methodological level, which involves the methods and techniques adopted in conducting the research. For the purposes of this section we will focus only on the level of methods and techniques where the most common distinction is between qualitative and quantitative methods. However, it has to be noted that generally the problem investigated and the philosophical position affect the way of approaching the data at the levels of both collection and analysis. To clarify, the methodological distinction between qualitative and quantitative data is generally consistent with the philosophical distinction between phenomenology (based on interpretation of multiple realities) and positivism (based on the belief that an objective reality exists and can be recorded). The distinction between qualitative and quantitative data is also usually consistent with the distinction between idiographic (inquiry from inside—the researcher is part of the phenomenon observed in depth) and nomothetic research (inquiry from outside—the researcher's role is that of recording events and generalizing).

Although a distinct dichotomy exists between the philosophical, social, and methodological positions listed above, the reality of research often determines compromises between the perspectives. While difficulties may be encountered when mixing methods, it may be valuable to the investigation of the research problem to maximize the amount of information obtained about a particular phenomenon with the use of different lines of evidence from various methods. The main difficulty associated with multimethod research is that different methods that address different aspects of a problem may yield divergent answers. These conflicts are often seen as invalidating each other rather than offering insight into different aspects of the issue investigated. The use of multimethod research is less problematic if such methods adopt the same underlying philosophical position. By doing so, some of the difficulties would be minimized and the methodological strategy would expand and deepen the knowledge of the area investigated.

...