What is mixed methods research

Data collection is the systematic process by which observations or measurements are gathered in research. It is used in many different contexts by academics, governments, businesses, and other organizations. Triangulation means using multiple methods to collect and analyze data on the same subject. By combining different types or sources of data, you can strengthen the validity of your findings.

These are four of the most common mixed methods designs :. Have a language expert improve your writing. Check your paper for plagiarism in 10 minutes. Do the check. Generate your APA citations for free! APA Citation Generator. Home Knowledge Base Methodology An introduction to mixed methods research.

An introduction to mixed methods research Published on August 13, by Tegan George. Mixed methods research question examples To what extent does the frequency of traffic accidents quantitative reflect cyclist perceptions of road safety qualitative in Amsterdam?

How do student perceptions of their school environment qualitative relate to differences in test scores quantitative? How do interviews about job satisfaction at Company X qualitative help explain year-over-year sales performance and other KPIs quantitative? How can voter and non-voter beliefs about democracy qualitative help explain election turnout patterns quantitative in Town X?

How do average hospital salary measurements over time quantitative help to explain nurse testimonials about job satisfaction qualitative? Here's why students love Scribbr's proofreading services Trustpilot. What is mixed methods research? What is data collection? What to use it for You can use a mixed methods study at any stage of the development of your digital product or service. It can be used: during development formative or iterative evaluation to describe how well your product works summative evaluation to find out how to improve or adapt your product to different user groups or environments Pros Benefits include: combining quantitative and qualitative approaches can balance out the limitations of each method it can provide stronger evidence and more confidence in your findings it can give you more granular results than each individual method Cons Drawbacks include: it can be more complex to carry out it may require more expertise to collect and analyse data, and to interpret the results, than using one method would combining different methods requires extra resources, such as time and money How to carry out a mixed methods study Depending on what you want to find out, different quantitative and qualitative components might be most appropriate.

Examples of how a mixed methods study might be used at different stages of product development: During the development of your digital product You could use a survey to gather quantitative data combined with open-ended questions to collect qualitative data. When you have developed your product A mixed methods study can help you to investigate the effects of your intervention on the outcomes you want to measure.

Adapting your product to different user groups or environments After your product is launched in one context, you can use a mixed methods study to find out what modifications you need to make to adapt your product for a different context.

Published 2 June Related content Patient-reported outcomes and experiences study Interview study: qualitative studies Quasi-experimental study: comparative studies Case-control study: comparative studies Contextual inquiry Collection Evaluating digital health products. Brexit Check what you need to do. Explore the topic Health improvement Research, testing and standards. Is this page useful? Maybe Yes this page is useful No this page is not useful.

Thank you for your feedback. Report a problem with this page. What were you doing? Download PDF. Jose F. This item has received. Under a Creative Commons license. Article information. Full Text. Barriers to integrating quantitative and qualitative research. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 1 , pp.

Creswell, V. Plano Clark. Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Communities of practice. A research paradigm for the mixed methods approach. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 2 , pp.

To prosper, organizational psychology should … overcome methodological barriers to progress. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29 , pp. Fetters, D. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 9 , pp. Greene, V. Caracelli, W. Toward a conceptual framework for mixed-method evaluation designs. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 11 , pp. Johnson, A. Mixed methods research: A research paradigm whose time has come. Below we discuss several challenges. Increases the complexity of evaluations.

Mixed methods studies are complex to plan and conduct. They require careful planning to describe all aspects of research, including the study sample for qualitative and quantitative portions identical, embedded, or parallel ; timing the sequence of qualitative and quantitative portions ; and the plan for integrating data. Integrating qualitative and quantitative data during analysis is often a challenging phase for many researchers.

Relies on a multidisciplinary team of researchers. Conducting high-quality mixed methods studies requires a multidisciplinary team of researchers who, in the service of the larger study, must be open to methods that may not be their area of expertise.

Finding qualitative experts who are also comfortable discussing quantitative analyses and vice versa can be challenging in many environments. Given that each method must adhere to its own standards for rigor, ensuring appropriate quality of each component of a mixed methods study can be difficult Wisdom, Cavaleri, Onwuegbuzie, et al. For example, quantitative analyses require much larger sample sizes to obtain statistical significance than do qualitative analyses, which require meeting goals of saturation not uncovering new information from conducting more interviews and relevance.

Embedded samples, in which a qualitative subsample is embedded within a larger quantitative sample, can be useful in cases of inadequate statistical power. Requires increased resources. Finally, mixed methods studies are labor intensive and require greater resources and time than those needed to conduct a single method study. The integration of quantitative and qualitative data in the form of a mixed methods study has great potential to strengthen the rigor and enrich the analysis and findings of any PCMH evaluation.

Collecting and analyzing both quantitative closed-ended and qualitative open-ended data. Integrating the data during data collection, analysis, or discussion. Using procedures that implement qualitative and quantitative components either concurrently or sequentially, with the same sample or with different samples.

On This Page I. Mixed Methods Studies II. Advantages VI.