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Integrating quality into quantity: survey research in the era of mixed methods

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Abstract

As widely recognized during the golden age of survey research thanks to the work of the Columbia school, the use of mixed strategies allows survey research to overcome its limitations by incorporating the advantages of qualitative approaches rather than seeking alternative methods. The need to re-think survey research before embarking on this course impelled the author to undertake a critical analysis of one of the survey’s most important assumptions, proposing a shift from standardization of stimulus to standardization of meanings in order to anchor the requirement of answer comparability on a more solid basis. This proposal for rapprochement with qualitative research is followed by a more detailed section in which the author distinguishes four different types of mixed survey strategies, combining two criteria (time order and function of qualitative procedures). The most significant parts of the constructed typology are then brought together in a model called the multilevel integrated survey approach. This methodological model is concretely illustrated in an empirical study of homophobic prejudice among teenagers. The example shows how in research practice analytical mixed strategies can be creatively combined in the same survey research design, contributing to improvements in data quality and the relevance of research findings.

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Notes

  1. Among others, in alphabetical order: Paul Beatty, Norman M. Bradburn, Charles L. Briggs, Frederick Conrad, Hanneke Houtkoop-Seenstra, Brigitte Jordan, Douglas Maynard, Hugh Mehan, Elliot G. Mishler, Nora Cate Schaeffer, Michael F. Schober, Norbert Schwarz, Howard Schuman, Lucy Suchman, Seymour Sudman, Judith M. Tanur.

  2. Strictly speaking, then, the term ‘methods’ (even in the expression ‘Mixed methods’) should be discarded because it conveys the idea that qualitative and quantitative methods are independent and in some ways mutually exclusive. As the pragmatist philosopher John Dewey pointed out (1938), the logic of social-scientific research (the method) is unique and always follows the same criteria of scientific validation and the same general procedural steps. For this reason, it would be preferable to speak of ‘mixed research’ (Onwuegbuzie 2007), ‘mixed methodology’ (Tashakkori and Teddlie 2003), or, as in this article, mixed strategies.

  3. It is important not to confuse deviant cases with deviant findings, introduced in the integrative in-depth survey strategy. Deviant cases are residual exceptions to confirmed hypotheses and empirical regularities, while deviant findings are empirical regularities that contradict the researcher’s theoretical expectations and thus concern a preponderant number of cases.

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  1. Department of Communication and Social Research, Sapienza University of Rome, C.so d’Italia 38/a, 00198, Rome, Italy

    Sergio Mauceri

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  1. Sergio Mauceri
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Mauceri, S. Integrating quality into quantity: survey research in the era of mixed methods. Qual Quant 50, 1213–1231 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-015-0199-8

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