[1][2][3] The term multimethodology was used starting in the 1980s and in the 1989 book Multimethod Research: A Synthesis of Styles by John Brewer and Albert Hunter.
For Peirce, research is conducted and interpreted from the eye of the beholder, as a practical approach to investigating social affairs.
[11] John Dewey extends both, "Peirce pragmatic method and (William) James' radical empiricism (and approach to experience) by application to social and political problems."
[11]: 70 His philosophical pragmatism takes an interdisciplinary approach, where the divide between quantitative and qualitative research represents an obstacle to solving a problem.
Following Dewey, quantitatively driven research methods dominated until 1979, when Richard Rorty revived pragmatism.
Radical empiricism, as articulated by William James, takes reality as a function of our ongoing experiences, constantly changing at the individual level.
James also finds the truth in empirical and objectives facts, merging the divide between qualitative and quantitative research.
Dialectical pluralism is a form of pragmatism that emphasizes intentionally drawing from multiple approaches to conducting research and developing knowledge.
Instead, the researcher using dialectical pluralism in the conduct of a mixed-method study may tack back and forth between models and perspectives in order to develop insight.
[9] Like dialectical pluralism, realist paradigms in the context of pragmatic multi/mixed-methods research emphasize the idea that multiple approaches to knowledge are expected and can be treated as complementary.
In contrast to a more strict positivist approach, critical realism sees causality as embedded in the details of a situation and social processes that surround an event.
Transformative and emancipatory paradigms emphasize a commitment on the part of the researcher to social justice, as in critical race theory.
The use of multiple strategies to enhance construct validity (a form of methodological triangulation) is now routinely advocated by methodologists.
Approaches are broad, holistic (but general) methodological guides or roadmaps that are associated with particular research motives or analytic interests.