NATURE OF PROBLEM-SOLVING IN SOCIAL-ACTION

The nature of scientific problem-solving has been assumed to be appropriate to all problems, including those in the social realm. There are no intractable problems. If problems in the social realm seem intractable, it is assumed that it is because they have not been formulated and attacked scientifically. The social scientists who entered social action after World War II, armed with theories and scientifically tested knowledge, found a world that would not bend to their paradigms. They entered a world governed by values, not facts, where persuasion and power were in the service of different definitions of age-old questions, where the relationship between action and values was more crucial to living than was the requirement that action lead to a solution. Many social scientists reacted with either petulance or bewilderment, and their attempts at social change fared poorly. A malaise set in, a crisis of confidence. How does one justify trying to cope with what may be intractable problems? The nature of the questions belies its origins in the assumption of science that one has to believe that all problems are solvable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1978 American Psychological Association.