Field experimentation in rural sociology

It is possible & desirable to apply R. A. Fisher's design for experiment to sociol'al res. Ru sociol'ts are better placed than other sociol'ts for using the exp'al method because of their link with action agencies. An experiment is a res design that permits the testing of causal hyp's. 3 conditions must be satisfied: a time sequence with respect to the independent & dependent variation; covariation of the independent & dependent variable; & 'other things equal,' ie, the consideration of all other possible causes. 4 types of studies in Ru sociol may be called exp'al: the unstructured observation: the before-after observation; the quasi-exp'al study; & the exp'al design. The best form of exp'al study is the field experiment in conjunction with planned change. In this type of exp, random assignment & the probability test take the place of laboratory control. This has had the advantage of reducing artificiality, ie, the gap between the conditions under which the hypothesis is tested & the realistic conditions faced by the soc practitioner. A major problem in field exp'tion is the relationship between the sociol'st & the action agency. The latter has to be convinced of the usefulness of res & its resistence must be overcome. The actual relationship depends on the particular situation. Resistence will be smaller, for instance, in the testing of a proposed practice against normal agency practice than in the case of evaluation res of agency practice. Moral objections have been made to field exp'tion: if the adoption of strategy mean/average has beneficial results, it is immoral to withhold it from some cases for exp'al purposes. The answer is that if the effect of strategy mean/average is not precisely known, it is neither right nor wrong to withhold it. A Bibliog. A. Peskin.