Grounded Theory in Practice: Is It Inherently a Mixed Method?

We address 2 key points of contention in this article. First, we engage the debate concerning whether particular methods are necessarily linked to particular research paradigms. Second, we briefly describe a mixed methods version of grounded theory (MM-GT). Grounded theory can be tailored to work well in any of the 3 major forms of mixed methods research (i.e., qualitative dominant, equal status, and quantitative dominant). In equal-status MM research, MM-GT works well in connecting theory generation with theory testing, linking theory and practice, and linking general/nomological description/explanation with idiographic understandings of the human world. Thus, is grounded theory inherently a mixed method? No it is not, simply because no method is fully and necessarily entailed (logically) by an epistemology. We contend that the relationships among question, method, theory, epistemology, and instantiation of a research study are multidirectional or circular or mutual. We hope that MM-GT will be advanced frequently in the future. (Contains 3 figures and 5 notes.)