Lets start with the the word paradigm in research. This refers to philosophy and if you are looking to understand this for a material sense then it is a set methods, design, tools when conducting research.
Exploring the truth requires us to be open minded about what we find. It is beneficial if we use approaches that don't infringe the rights of the rights. Having different tools helps us to explore this.
To understand the human mind, we either use a #quantitiative or #qualitative approach. Historically from the reading, there has been different view points about the strengths and limitations of each approach, sometimes cancelling each other out.
So how about when its combined i.e. mixed methods or as researchers framed this to be third paradigm. What happens, well they provide some answers if not all.