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The article author comments on the views of sociologist Raymond F. Sletto on the criterion of internal consistency in personality scale construction. Sletto's paper represents a contribution to an over-neglected task in sociology. It concerns the fundamental question of the applicability of specific methodological presuppositions to social phenomena. Only too frequently have social research techniques been used without the necessary concomitant investigation into their underlying logical foundations, and the applicability of these to the sense world. The field of measurement has suffered its share of this critical inertia in the past; consequently any attempt to examine the assumptions underlying a particular type of measurement should be encouraged by all serious research workers. An adequate critical evaluation of such an analysis as Sletto has given seems to the author to necessitate two points of reference. The analysis should be evaluated with reference to the scientific tradition involved-in this case personality scale construction, and secondly with reference to the broader problem of the adequacy of this tradition in the light of scientific method.

The assumption underlying most philosophical theories of science, that one can apply to any scientific theory the concept of 'truth', is, with its implication of absolute finality, a hangover from the period when Newtonian physics was regarded as an absolute end state. The hidden mourning about the passing of this ideal science gives present philosophical approaches to science and scientific method their common stamp. The alternative seems to be the retreat into a sociological relativism. The paper shows that it is possible to work out a science-theoretical paradigm which avoids the pitfalls of both philosophical absolutism and sociological relativism. It suggests that instead of discussing criteria of a fictitious absolute end-state of knowledge, one might try to discover criteria and conditions for the advance of knowledge, non-scientific and scientific. A theory of this kind has the added advantage that it can be tested by, and can serve as a guide for, empirical studies of sciences and of knowledge generally. The paper also suggests that discussions about 'value-freedom' should be abandoned in favour of enquiries into the use of scientific and non-scientific values in scientific work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the design and analysis of dental experiments, specifically focusing on non-parametric tests involving independent samples with ordinal scales. The authors detail non-parametric and distribution-free tests that can be applicable to data that is classified according to ordinal scales.

This paper is limited to a discussion of method. Results of using, method will be cited only as they illustrate the validity of method or some unsolved problems of method. Two methods of observing the sociological aspects of housing will be considered: observational study using the questionnaire method and sociometric scales to obtain quantitative records of observation; and observational study under conditions of control by use of a projected experimental design arid by use of an ex post facto experimental design. In this study, 900 questionnaires were distributed through the PTA of Seattle in the fall of 1941 to a random sample of their membership. Three hundred questionnaires were returned and supplied information on 134 items. The author does not tell us how representative these 300 returns were of the sample of 900 families. But his breakdown analysis supplies some interesting information about the frequency of complaints. These complaints are examined from two frames of reference: complaints about eight family functions, such as how housing interfered with meals, hygiene, sleeping, housework, child care, leisure, social life, and location; and complaints about housing as it interfered with the convenient use of five types of rooms, dining-room, bedroom, kitchen, bath-room, and living-room.

There is a significant lack of patient-centered studies in current socio-medical research, and also very little use made of experimental designs. As a departure from this trend, this paper presents the design and result s of a clinical experiment indica-. ting greater effectiveness of a patient-centered nursing approach used to administer a standard nursing procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the design and analysis of dental experiments, specifically focusing on non-parametric tests that have correlated samples with ordinal scales. Data in an ordinal scale often have qualitative variables, making it necessary to grade them subjectively. The authors examine the use of this data in dental research.

The article examines testing, maturation and treatment effects in a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design. The design is appropriate for situations in which all subjects given the treatment must be tested before and after the treatment, and it is anticipated that each testing may effect the subjects' scores on subsequent testings and that changes in the subjects due to maturation may occur. "Testing" refers to the well-known fact that persons tend to increase their scores on second and subsequent administrations of a test because of familiarity with the format of the test, recalling answers to items, etc. "Maturation" refers to processes in the subjects that act as a function of the passage of time, such as growing older, hungrier, and more tired. Such a design would be of practical importance, since testing generally is the largest uncontrolled influence in the "one-group pretest-posttest design" as commonly employed over a short interval of time. Maturation usually has less effect, though in some circumstances its influence may be appreciable.

The article presents author's comment in response to the review essay on the book "Behavioral Sociology: The Experimental Analysis of Social Processes," published in the December 1970 issue of "American Sociological Reviews." The author argues against the reinforced behavior and the nonreinforced or punished behavior as mentioned by the reviewer. Also, he asserts that the reviewer's claim that no consideration is given to all the vaunted scientific method, questions regarding the demand characteristics of the situation, experimenter effects, or what the subject really thinks about in the situation is wrong. Furthermore, the authors points out the error on the non-experimental evidence which the reviewer claims that it comes from so-called "field studies" in the treatment and control of retarded and emotionally disturbed children. The author also fights back on the "social process" as mentioned in the subtitle of the book. Finally, he replies to the issue of "extreme repugnance" as mentioned by the reviewer.

From tune to time, we will carry candid observations on the American educational research scene, provided by our colleagues from other lands. These are not systematic studies of comparative nature, but they will nevertheless serve as a mirror for our self; examination. It is a coincidence that the series is introduced by a researcher from one of the oldest civilizations on earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Panel-design research on lower-class youth entering a high-status university is used to test three competing hypotheses of the personal and social consequences of upward mobility. The evidence clearly shows that, although these upwardly mobile youth have been screened for their "middle-class" characteristics and for their academic and social promise in high school, they nevertheless encounter a disproportionate share of isolating experiences and personal strain, both as viewed through the eyes of institutional observers and as realized in personal experience. The compensatory hypothesis -- that this situation stems from early childhood deprivation and the attendant inability to form effective primary group relations -- is not supported by their high school records and recommendations. The ameliorative hypothesis -- that the value assimilation necessary for upward movement brings acceptance by the new group -- is not substantiated by the college experiences of the subjects. Rather, the evidence bears out Sorokin's dissociative hypothesis that upward mobility is itself a disruptive social experience which leaves the individual for an appreciable period without roots or effective social support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experimental designs have previously been treated unsystematically. This article presents all possible experimental designs that use from one to four groups, the groups being differentiated by whether they receive a pretest, a stimulus, neither or both. Pretesting a group on the dependent variable may change the experiment's outcome, as may uncontrolled events. Both factors are worked into the analysis, as well as all possible interactions among these and the stimulus. Contrary to general belief, it develops that the classic two-group design is not optimal, nor are the three-group and four-group designs now in the literature. For every design the investigator must assume a value for one or more quantities, and tables are presented with solutions for unknown quantities under each combination of assumptions. Statistical procedures for data analysis are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today hardly anyone doubts the need for sociological theory to ensure success and effectiveness in sociological research. The main characteristic of sociological research in Russia is that it is based upon historical materialism which is the universal sociological theory. The subject of scientific sociology, is the perception of social life in its entirety, in its internal integrity and the reciprocity of its phases, relations and processes. Marxist sociology, being a synthesized science, bases itself upon the aggregate of findings of other social sciences, studies universal laws of social development as well as the concrete forms of the way they manifest themselves under varying conditions. Marxist sociology employs the theory and method of scientific sociology, i.e., historical materialism, in specific sociological research in order to understand the inner mechanism of social events and the laws of their development, and to analyze specific social situations that arise in the process of social life.

The norms governing presidential addresses permit criticism and exhortation-and of this the speaker takes full advantage. Among the criticisms that may be made of contemporary sociology is that it suffers from too narrow a conception of inquiry. The scientific method, however important, does not exhaust the resources of scholarship in sociology. In the resent state of our discipline a cogent thesis, in formed by a "theoretic bias," is frequently more enlightening than a true hypothesis-even though the latter qualifies as knowledge and the former does not. in any event, sociology owns a proper place not only among the sciences but also among the arts that liberate the human mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses studies in the design and analysis of dental experiments, specifically focusing on non-parametric tests that have correlated samples with dichotomous scales. The authors examine the different methods used in expressing the results of many dental studies and how measurements are analyzed.

The article discusses social theory. If the crucial deficiency of social theory, is the ambiguous nature of concepts, one must proceed to make the concepts clear and definite. This is the hub of the problem. But, the question is how to do this. The possible lines of answer can be reduced a lot by recognizing that a great deal of endeavor, otherwise conscientious and zealous, does not touch the problem. The clarification of concepts is not achieved by introducing a new vocabulary of terms or substituting new terms. The task is not one of lexicography. It is not achieved by extensive reflection on theories to show their logical weaknesses and pitfalls. It is not accomplished by forming or importing new theories. It is not achieved by inventing new technical instruments or by improving the reliability of old techniques. Such instruments and techniques are neutral to the concepts on behalf of which they may be used. The clarification of concepts does not come from piling up mountains of research findings. So far, the suitability of these precision endeavors to solving the problem of the ambiguous concept remains in the realm of claim and promise.

When experiments are performed on social objects, special attention needs to be paid to certain features of the experiment which the experimenter on physical or biological objects can afford to overlook. It is not that the intrinsic characteristics of the experiment are different in the social and natural sciences, but that the characteristics of the social object and the social context of the experimenter are sufficiently different to warrant special consideration. Researcher F. Stuart Chapin and researcher Ernest Greenwood and others have performed an excellent service for sociologists by pointing out the ways in which the experimental method could be adapted to social science problems and by performing actual social science experiments to break the path for more extended use of that method. The experimental method is probably the most fruitful method of science generally, and its use in social science will no doubt extend knowledge markedly. While there is no intrinsic reason why the experiment cannot be applied to social science problems, there are differences between physical data and social data that should be taken into consideration before the method is carried over from one science to the other.

The article focuses on the controversy related to the ideas of sociology. There are two conflicting beliefs, one that sociology must adopt principles and methods of the physical and biological sciences, and the other that sociology must use its own methods, since these are best adapted to its subject matter. The author here argues that if attention is shifted from science to scientific progress, the basis of the controversy will no longer exist. Scientific progress consists of the extension of the universe of knowledge. The basic postulate of the scientific form is the one which becomes the epistemological condition for enlarging its universe. The analysis of the scientific form represents a crystallization of the point of view of science. It is above all a logical description of what is meaningful among the beliefs maintained by scientists as to what they do. According to the author the admission to the scientific scene of the directly and undefined perceiving mind results in the superimposition of questions of verbal meaning and psychological perception on any scientific endeavor, especially in sociology.

As a philosophic term initiated by Auguste Comte, positivism represented at one and the same time the growing confidence in science and in scientific methods and a proud acknowledgment of their purely human basis and significance. It is true, so Comte held, that there is a transphenomenal realm but, then, nothing can be known about it. All human knowledge is relative and based ultimately upon the sensory given. Sociologists cannot know what lies behind the given; it is really useless and even misleading to speculate about it, as the metaphysician has been accustomed to do. It is obvious that they have in these principles the expression of a perspective, which had been developing in Europe for some time in connection with the growth of science. Modern science had from the first a utilitarian mark which ancient science lacked. So far as Comte can be said to have had a theory of knowledge back of his pronouncements, it was essentially that of the sensationalistic empiricism of the eighteenth century, rooted in, and akin to, the way of ideas of several sociologists.

The article asserts that culture is a much used and abused term. Different writers deliberately use the term to indicate radically different realities and even when they seem to intend to indicate the same realities they often vary equally as much. The most generally accepted technical synoptical definitions of the term culture are likely to be defended on two scores, that they have been put to very fruitful use and that examination of contexts shows social scientists to be far more agreed regarding the nature of the realities denoted by the term than is reflected in the synoptical definitions. The article considers these defenses as flimsy. For much of the apparent fruitfulness of the definitions has been due to the fact that, once submitted, they have been complied with or ignored according to the convenience of their sponsors and, in science, contextual agreement among writers does not compensate for crudities of slipshod synoptical definition. The distinctive feature of a scientific definition is its high instrumental value and this derives from the fact that it either constitutes or can fit into a scientific system, or both.

The two studies reported here were designed to separate the two motivationally competitive variables of maximizing personal gain and maximizing differential gain. A second goal was to determine whether a large monetary payoff would induce a higher degree of cooperative play than that reported previously. The mean percent of cooperative choices over blocks of 20 trials for Groups A, B, C, and D, is shown in the article. In Experiment I, the difference in cooperation between Matrices I and II,, and the fact that Matrices A and C of Experiment II were not played 100 percent cooperatively, indicate that the purely competitive motivational component of differential gain does influence choice behavior in game situations. The results of the two experiments indicate that the motive of obtaining a differential advantage over the other player and the motive of maximizing one's absolute gain were both operating in the game situation. The third motivating factor favoring competition is contained only in Matrix D, the Prisoner's Dilemma matrix.

The article presents a study which identifies and illustrates sources of external invalidity of experiments. The researchers intent was to encourage care in designing experiments and interpreting experimental results. They postulated that the identification of the sources of external invalidity is intended to serve as a useful mnemonic for evaluating the generalizability of experimental results. The threats to external validity were the following: (1) population validity, and (2) ecological validity. Population validity is categorized into two namely: experimentally accessible population vs. target population and interaction of personological variables and treatment effects. On the other hand, ecological validity consists of the following variables: (1) describing the independent variable explicitly, (2) multiple-treatment interference, (3) hawthorne effect, (4) novelty and disruption effects, (5) experimenter effect, (6) pretest sensitization, (7) post-test sensitization, (8) interaction of history and treatment effects, (9) measurement of the dependent variable, and (10) interaction of time of measurement and treatment effects.

The article focuses on the influence of Ronald Fisher's "The Design of Experiments" on educational research. The author points out that the impact of Fisher's belief in the design and analysis of experiments. An important contribution has been the improvement of the real mobile sources. The author points out that educational research have been reaching the stage where important problems are attacked.

The article reports on research that developed a method for separating uric acid from proteins in human saliva. The author discusses a gel filtration technique that effectively accomplishes this task. The author also notes another method for separating these proteins into separate groups did not accomplish this task; however, it did separate the proteins form the uric acid.

The article reports that the Dept. of Education and Psychology of the North Dakota Agricultural College has introduced a basic curriculum in the degree program which includes, among others, a course in research methods which is a study of methods and techniques acceptable at the graduate level. Through topical study, oral reports and seminar-type discussion the student is familiarized with the rigid criteria of the scientific method in research. The nature of various methods, such as the historical, experimental, and survey, is explored, with attention given to the proper use of the questionnaire, interview, activity analysis, tests, and the case study. Fair sampling, statistical criteria and other basic elements in research also receive consideration.