- Quantitative has the longer history

- Qualitative has only recently become an acceptable way of answering a research problem

- The newest development is a mixed method, combining the two

- Much credit to Campbell and Fiske in the late 50’s and 60’s

- They looked at multiple methods to measure traits, this helped pave the way for mixed methods

- If we are comparing or basing something off of more then one method the idea would be the end result should be a better conclusion/product

- Soon after other people such as Sieber (1973) and Jick (1979) were using a combination of studies with surveys to provide a better picture

- Seeing more mixed methods being published in scholarly literature.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

Jicks role was particularly interesting as he looked at triangulation (sailors use many reference points to find an exact location at sea).

This relates to research by realizing looking at different or mixed methods may improve the end result.

It is like having the bets of both worlds.

It was not as cut and dry as it has been made out to be thus far

Throughout the 80’s and 90’s the ‘worldview’ method argument began

In a nutshell

- broad philosophical assumptions researchers use in studies

- can both quantitative and qualitative exist because of the different philosophical

differences

- researchers always make assumptions they would argue

- this leading to, how could a mixed method be used, as a single worldview did not exist

Arguments that helped pave the way for mixed methods:

- more interest in procedural aspects of conducting mixed methods

- the idea of triangulation

- could collect the mixed methods at different stages

- could be collected at multiple levels

- emphasize one over the other

Last Decade

- much more support for mixed methods

- it is still debated and not all support this way of conducting research

- however mixed method is much more accepted than it was in the later part of the 20th

century