Techreport,
Social Policy Research and the Realities of the System: Violence Done to TV Research
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, (1972)
Abstract
It is the premise of this report that an appropriate role for social scientists is to aid national decisionmakers by doing policy research: monitoring social problem areas, defining policy problems, and outlining, testing and refining policy alternatives. The report also points out some obstacles, such as the academic goals of detachment and generalizable theory, which stand in the way of good policy research. As a specific example of policy research, the author describes the NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) sponsored research on television and social behavior, and points out some shortcomings: an industry veto on advisory committee members, the failure of the advisory committee to specify the research question, and the pressure for a unanimous report which allowed the industry representatives to obscure the research findings. Unless social scientists learn from mistakes such as this, the author warns that policymakers are likely to stop consulting social scientists, and social policies will suffer.
