Foundations of Multimethod Research

Synthesizing Styles

Multimethod Research offers an explanation of how a planned synthesis of various research techniques (fieldwork, surveys, experiments, and nonreactive studies) can be purposely used to improve social science knowledge. The authors discuss 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.

The book is a must-read for beginning to intermediate students and professionals who need to gain a better conceptual understanding of how to do social and behavioural 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