The historical development of current controversy over the use of quantitative or qualitative approaches in evaluation is traced. (Author/PN)

This paper contains informal remarks on action research in social psychology from its post World War II origins to its current status. Kurt Lewin first described action research in the 1946 article, "Action Research and Minority Problems," as a three-step process of program planning, program execution, and follow-up evaluation. Ronald Lippitt and…

Noting that recent years have produced an explosion of work in the fields of constitutional and legal history, this article identifies the conclusions and interpretive issues such studies have generated. The impact of social scientific historical methodology and social history are also assessed. (JDH)

Highlights steps for carrying out a needs assessment survey research effort in the Black community. Stresses the need for understanding (1) cultural-linguistic and historical factors, (2) the potential or inadvertent role of the researcher, and (3) the obstacles and resistance one may encounter in carrying out the survey and implementing its…

Examines historical roots of the link between statistics and psychology, exploring the way in which the conceptual framework for the application of probability in psychological research was created by experimental design. In the social sciences, statistics creates and defines objects of study more directly than in the physical sciences. (SLD)

An overview of the academic profession in America is presented, and many of the studies of this topic are categorized into a coherent framework. A search of the research literature on college and university faculty appearing in the post-World War II period was conducted. The two preemptive sources of knowledge about faculty were doctoral…

The current state of social psychology is assessed in light of its historical and social context. The discipline is viewed as a social system, and it is argued that the properties of this system have influenced the research techniques, substantive content, and theories of contemporary social psychology. (Author/RD)

This report on the background and motives of Welsh volunteers in the British Brigade during the Spanish Civil War demonstrates how free-ranging discussions with the volunteers, their families, and friends provide a rich oral history despite the lack of written accounts of that period. (AM)

Outlines a method of using census information on residence and marriage among the Crow during the early reservation era (1880-1910) to investigate the persistence of traditional family patterns and the emergence of twentieth-century tribal culture. Contains 19 data tables and figures. (SV)

This paper presents an overview of Florence Nightingale's statistical background and accomplishments; discusses Victorian statistics, Nightingale's education and statistical contributions; and concludes with implications for professors and students of educational research. Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the first woman elected as a fellow of…

This final volume of a six-volume study of an elementary school called "Kensington" in a school district code-named "Milford," examines its own assumptions and procedures. After the brief, introductory chapter, which presents the methodological appendixes of the preceding volumes as a serial, chapter 2 discusses exploratory and…