Combining qualitative and quantitative sampling, data collection, and analysis techniques in mixed-method studies.

Abstract

Researchers have increasingly turned to mixed-method techniques to expand the scope and improve the analytic power of their studies. Yet there is still relatively little direction on and much confusion about how to combine qualitative and quantitative techniques. These techniques are neither paradigm- nor method-linked; researchers' orientations to inquiry and their methodological commitments will influence how they use them. Examples of sampling combinations include criterion sampling from instrument scores, random purposeful sampling, and stratified purposeful sampling. Examples of data collection combinations include the use of instruments for fuller qualitative description, for validation, as guides for purposeful sampling, and as elicitation devices in interviews. Examples of data analysis combinations include interpretively linking qualitative and quantitative data sets and the transformation processes of qualitizing and quantitizing.