Carol Weiss' Social Science Research

A Critical Evaluation of the Work of Carol Weiss

There has been enormous change in the social sciences during the past few decades, particularly in respect to acceptable research methods and understandings of social reality. The knowledge claims of social science have come under attack from feminists and minority groups who contend that these knowledge claims have most often represented the social reality of a limited minority group of white, elite males. This has brought under discussion the relationship between empirical and normative aspects of inquiry practices and created a problem of evaluation in social inquiry (Schwandt, 1997).

One of the particular problems has been the problem of values, both in professional practice and in terms of social inquiry, including evaluation. If the ways of conceiving the moral life, and if the values of any group, differ from that of normative practice, then this is a problem for social science (Schwandt, 1997).

Feminist philosophy, critical theory, and hermeneutics have provided much of the grounding for the new discussion about the conduct of social science research and the evaluation of its results. It has often emphasized more qualitative measures, denying empiricism its "objectivity". Still, the need for evaluation has remained.

One of the current professionals noted for her work in program evaluation is Carol Weiss. Weiss, of Harvard University, has emphasized that although good data is useful and b

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ds to do without theory, going simply by anecdotal evidence or felt senses, nor that the researcher should be detached from the reality of people's lives. Nor is it the case that the two types of people should spend their energy and resources doing battle over what set of interests and values will rule the day. Instead, the effort here is to think about how good theory can be developed that allows something to both sides. The researcher needs to have means for credible knowledge creation and dissemination and the practitioner needs to have influence on the evaluation process from a people-oriented, here and now perspective. When this happens, the potential exists for creating evaluative approaches that can support knowledge creation and knowledge application that is satisfying for all involved in the process, including the community as a whole. In her theory-based approach, the emphasis is on exploring how and why a particular program is supposed to work. Evaluating the program requires looking at the assumptions which underly the program and starting with those to develop data collection methods that identify the assumptions that are supported, as well as those which break down. The data should also provide information a

Category: Psychology - C