Citation

Chein I, Cook SW, Harding J. Am. Psychol. 1948; 3(2): 43-50.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1948, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/h0053515

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The scientist who is engaged in action research necessarily adopts the conditional approach to his problems. He cannot be content just to describe the course of events since he wishes to influence their course. There are special difficulties in action research because the scientist's problems are determined by society, their solutions are sought in society, and the solutions must be successfully applied in society. Action research may take 4 different forms: (1) diagnostic--the research agency studies the situation and makes recommendations as to remedial action; (2) participant--individuals of the community who will later implement the remedial measures participate in the original diagnosis; (3) empirical--discovering what happens in a given situation when certain measures are adopted to the end of developing generally valid principles; (4) experimental--various action techniques are compared under controlled conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)