By drawing analogies to the history of mental testing, the author concludes that the responsibility for critical evaluation and beneficial use of social indicators rests with social scientists. Future directions of critical inquiry are suggested. (Author/MH)

Social studies research has told us very little in the past 30 years. There are several reasons for this state of affairs in social studies. First, inferential statistics has become much too prominent in research thinking and practice. Replication should be used by researchers to build a useful body of knowledge. A second reason for lack of…