Triangulation
Abstract
Triangulation refers to the application and combination of several research methodologies in the study of the same phenomenon. The concept of triangulation, understood as in the action of drawing a triangle, may be traced back to the Greeks and the origins of modern geometry. Introduced in the social sciences in the 1950s (Campbell and Fiske, 1959), then heavily criticized in the 1980s (see Silverman, 1985; Lincoln and Guba, 1985; Guba and Lincoln, 1989) and in the 1990s (Flick, 2004, 2007), triangulation is a postpositivist methodological strategy. It has recently returned to favor, as a new generation of scholars is drawn to a mixed, or multimethod, approach to social inquiry (Teddlie and Tashakkori, 2003; Creswell, 2011). When the term was introduced in the social sciences, the method designated by it functioned as a bridge between quantitative and qualitative epistemologies. It was seen as a way of helping qualitative researchers become more rigorous, perhaps by allowing them to address a methodological inferiority associated with “a kind of stepchild complex” (Kamberelis and Dimitriadis, 2004: 2). Advocates of mixed‐methods research argue that it allows them to answer questions that other methodologies, taken singly, cannot. Further, it provides “better inferences based on a greater diversity of divergent views” (Teddlie and Tashakkori, 2003: 14–15).
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Theme tables and coded extracts were reviewed by the research team to achieve investigator triangulation.
“Theme tables and coded extracts were reviewed by the research team to achieve investigator triangulation (89–91).”
From A thematic analysis of adolescents’ perceptions of cyberbullying and cyberaggression: definitional distinctions and educational gaps (2026) · cites this paper as [91]
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Smith, E. J., Rai, R., Scase, M. O., & Wilson, A. D. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1746672
- Authors
- Denzin, N. K.
- Affiliations
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Corresponding author
- Denzin, Norman K.
- Venue
- The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2015-10-26
- OpenAlex
- W4232720114
- Cited by
- 75
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 4 · 2016: 1
- Type
- reference entry
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research
- Social Sciences › Education › Educational Research and Methods
- Social Sciences › Education › Qualitative Research Methods and Applications
- Keywords
- triangulation, mixed methods, multi-method research, post-positivism, qualitative research rigor, qualitative-quantitative integration, research methodology
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