Foundations of Multimethod Research

Drawing from authors John Brewer and Albert Hunter’s original work published in 1989, when single method research was the standard, this new text offers an explanation of how a planned synthesis of various research techniques such as fieldwork, surveys, experiments, and nonreactive studies can be purposely used to improve social science knowledge. Foundations of Multimethod Research: Synthesizing Styles explores the many aspects of the multimethod research approach, including the formulation of research problems, data collection, sampling and generalization, measurement, reliability and validity, hyposthesis testing and causal analysis, and writing and publicizing results.

Key Features:

• Provides a history of multimethod research as a post-positivist approach to give an accurate understanding of the emergence of this technique
• Compares and contrasts the major primary research methods to help students determine which multiple methods are suitable for their own research
• Addresses the post-modern critique of science and reviews how it has been articulated recently to examine how it is evaluated today
• Includes examples of research designs from academic journals so that students can see how formal results are written

This book is designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate research methods courses across the social and behavioral sciences. It is a must-read for anyone looking to gain a better conceptual understanding of how to do social and behavioral science research more effectively.

"This is a book I wish I had written. Although nearly every page contains an interesting methodological insight, it’s the synthesizing nature of the multimethod perspective that I find most satisfying. Instead of a patchwork of precepts and procedures, Professors Brewer and Hunter present a coherent synthesis of the principal quantitative and qualitative research styles." -- Kenneth O. Doyle, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

"This is a superb resource for anyone undertaking research in the social sciences. Going beyond simple descriptions of how to use each of the individual methods, Brewer and Hunter provide compelling arguments for systematically synthesizing different research styles at each stage of the research process. In doing so, they help us to see social science research as both an art and a science. By focusing our attention on how a multimethod approach can enhance each stage of the research, they avoid the simplistic dichotomy between qualitative and quantitative research and provide us with a much more sophisticated way of looking at the multimethod approach." -- Sue R. Faerman, University at Albany-SUNY