This chapter introduces multi-resolution research, namely, a way of analyzing qualitative data both qualitatively and quantitatively. Qualitative analysis zooms in to provide in-depth contextual insight and quantitative analysis zooms out to provide measures, associations, and statistical models. The underlying qualitative data are transformed between three types (excerpts, counts, measures), with each having unique gains and losses. Transforming the data back and forth between these data types – recursively quantitizing and qualitizing the data – can spur abductive insight and increase the legitimacy of social research.

This chapter starts by framing the larger debate concerning universalism versus contextualism in ethics, largely mirroring the one between positivism and relativism in science. It proposes that pragmatism transcends this dichotomy by considering the role of general (and particular) ethical norms and values in context and by focusing on moral deliberation. The pragmatist approach to ethics is described before discussing the ways in which ethical concerns and forms of reasoning accompany every phase of a research project. The practice of using deception, which is both widespread and controversial in social and psychological research, is reflected upon. Finally, the chapter ends with considerations regarding mixed methods, multi-resolution designs, and their ethical commitments.

Theories have been viewed as mirrors of nature and fictions tainted by human subjectivity. This chapter contends that theories are tools that enable humans to act and coordinate. It argues that theories are like maps that can get us from A to B and like models that allow us to simulate interventions in the world. It illustrates how these different conceptions of theory have implications for research in the domain of creativity research. Overall, this chapter shows how a pragmatist approach to methodology sensitizes researchers to anomalies, and data can be used to drive theory toward increasingly useful forms.

This chapter deals with the issue of epistemology or the oftentimes implicit theories of knowledge that guide research and methodological choices. The chapter starts with a brief discussion of what it means to live in a society in which the factual basis of truth can be easily questioned – the post-truth climate. It then outlines several popular conceptions and misconceptions about epistemology and maps out some of the main epistemological positions that inspired if not research then certainly philosophical debate. The second part of the chapter argues for pragmatism as an epistemology that can help us deal with the complexities of doing empirical research in a post-truth context by transcending the old realist–relativist divide and fostering methodological pluralism.

This chapter addresses the key question that should guide all social research, namely, what is it for? It argues that all research serves human interests, whether technocratic, hermeneutic, or emancipatory. Traditionally, technocratic research interests have been dominant. But, this chapter argues, a pragmatist approach to methodology foregrounds emancipatory research – which enables people to increase the domains of possibility within their lives.

This chapter is structured in four parts. First, the chapter reviews current approaches to the integration challenge and makes the case for a pragmatist approach. Second, it uses pragmatism to differentiate qualitative and quantitative research purposes and show how these purposes can be integrated to produce a more granular conceptualization of the synergies within simultaneous, sequential, and recursive designs. Third, it considers the question of creativity in mixed methods designs as a consequence of adopting a pragmatist standpoint. The chapter ends with a set of implications for mixed methods research and a call for new and creative methodologies in this area.

This chapter begins by differentiating qualitative and quantitative research. While some have argued that these approaches are incommensurable paradigms, this chapter argues that they are commensurable but suited to answering different research questions. It introduces a typology of research questions, with six types of question – three qualitative (describing phenomena, theoretical framing, and generating explanations) and three quantitative (measuring phenomena, testing theory, and exploring explanations). The chapter ends by reviewing heuristics to help researchers generate novel and productive research questions.

Data can be produced through a variety of means – from experiments and interviews to corpus construction – and take a wide range of forms, including numerical, text, sound, and image. The chapter opens with a review of the different roles data have in research – as reality, as construction, as disruption – and proposes to conceptualize data as a process, whereby records of a phenomenon (raw data) are elicited and transformed (transformed data). Second, the chapter proposes a classification of existing data collection methods and data types. Third, it discusses how technology has profoundly impacted data production, both making large datasets available and facilitating the collection of particularly rich data (e.g., big qualitative data). This allows us to understand both the opportunities and the challenges that new forms of data have for mixed-methods research.

This chapter introduces pragmatism as a process philosophy that is grounded in human activity. Pragmatism reconceptualizes the subject–object dichotomy and provide a transdisciplinary framework for creating useful knowledge. Eight pragmatist propositions for methodology are outlined: (1) Truth is in its consequences; (2) theories are tools for action; (3) research is as much about creating questions as answering questions; (4) data as a process; (5) qualitative and quantitative methods are synergistic; (6) recursively restructure big qualitative data to enable both qualitative and quantitative analyses; (7) social research creates both power and responsibility; and (8) social research should aim to expand human possibilities.

A pragmatist approach to methodology can foster insightful and impactful research. It can create knowledge that is useful, provide a framework for overcoming the qualitative–quantitative dichotomy, and conceptualize how to make the most of big qualitative data.

Identity is a dynamic. It changes across time and contexts. This presents a methodological challenge because established methods (interviews, surveys, experiments) are not ideal for tracking people across time and as they move between contexts. Increasingly, however, people leave textual traces of their identity in diaries and letters, that document changing identities across time and place. Since ancient Greece, autobiographical writings (letters, confessionals, diaries) have been a literary technique for people to explore and display their identities; subsequently, such self-writings offer researchers precious access to the situated and dynamic identities of others. We approach identity from a developmental, sociocultural, and dialogical perspective, and we thus consider diaries, letters, and blogs as providing a precious window on the development of identity. Specifically, we conceptualize self-writings as simultaneously an externalization of a person’s experience and a reflection upon her experience, addressed to real or imaginary audiences. Based on a ideographic study of diaries, we will show both how the development of subjective identity can be traced through time, as the diarist moves through real and imaginary spaces. Such analysis, we argue, demands both a careful, theoretically informed examination of form and content of texts, and the reconstitution of the environment in which these texts have been produced. Finally, we discuss new directions for the study of identity through increasingly diverse forms self-writing, such as online diaries, emails, text messages, letters, and social media.