• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

The farmer's wife decided it would be helpful if the mice learned which animals were friendly, and which ones might prefer to eat them than to partake in a visit. Since she was originally a city girl, she packed the three mice into her minivan and headed off to visit the museum of natural history. She thought using the exhibits would be safer than introducing them to the real things.

Although there weren't too many African wild animals on the farm where they lived, the farmer's wife thought it would be better to be “safe” than sorry.

They started with the tiger. She reasoned it was just a bigger version of the barnyard cat. The first mouse was on the back left paw. “It's got claws and big feet,” he shouted. The second mouse was on the tail. “It's got a long strong tail.” The third mouse, the oldest by three seconds, was at the face. “It has big eyes, big teeth, and whiskers.”

The farmer's wife smiled. “So, what is it?”

“A very big cat” they all said in unison.

“Very good. How about this one?” They all went over to the next animal.

“It's not an animal at all. It's a tree trunk,” said the first mouse.

“No, it's a snake hanging from a tree,” said the second.

And the third, again at the face of the animal, said, “It's a giant bird from the feel of the powerful wings.”

“Put all of those together children,” the farmer's wife advised.

They thought for a bit and finally shouted together in perfect harmony, “An elephant!”

“Very good.”

They continued this way through the animal exhibit, identifying wolves, dogs, lions, and bears. They learned about all types of animals, domestic and wild. Finally, they came to one they could not solve. It seemed to have the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and a snake's tail.

“We've looked over the animal from head to toe and back again,” they all agreed, “and we can't agree on what it is!”

“That's a chimera” said the farmer's wife. “I am very impressed by you three. With an understanding of animal physiology, you have successfully identified every creature, using very different inputs.”

The three mice beamed.

“But, we didn't get them all right,” said the third mouse, thinking of the chimera.

“No, but even with varying, complementary, solid data from multiple sources, you can't always get to the ‘truth.'” She was very pleased with how well they had done. Sometimes it's just not possible to derive the correct answer, even with a lot of data. Of course, it helps if you can observe the item yourself.

Researchers are the ultimate data users.

Triangulation—a Historical Perspective

The mice were forced to use triangulation to identify the animals. They compared different pieces of information gathered using different methods to determine the answers to their question (what is the animal that we are touching?). If the mice looked at only one piece of information, they'd have the wrong answers.

I bow to Norman K. Denzin, a professor of communications and sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, for his using “triangulation” to mean using more than two methods to collect data in the context of gathering and using research data. My definition is much like it—using multiple measures, as well as collection methods, for processing the information used in a metric.

A major reason for using triangulation, according to Denzin, is to reduce (if not eliminate) bias in the research. By using triangulation we ensure that we have a comprehensive answer to the question.

In his book, Sociological Methods: A Source Book, Denzin describes the following four types of triangulation:1

Data source: Using multiple data sources.

Investigator: Using more than one person to collect, analyze, or interpret a set of data.

Theory: Using multiple perspectives to interpret a set of data.

Method: Using multiple methods to capture the data.

But even Denzin would have to agree that it was not his “invention” since he cites a paper by Eugene J. Webb in which