Social Work Commons^™

Doing Good Science Without Sacrificing Good Values: Why The Heuristic Paradigm Is The Best Choice For Social Work, Jessica Heineman-Pieper, Katherine Tyson Mccrea, Martha Heineman Pieper

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Social work today faces a crucial watershed: Will the field continue to promulgate unsound and detrimental beliefs about social work research and knowledge, or will the field fully embrace the heuristic paradigm and thereby realize its true potential as a first-rate science committed to humanistic ideals? Proponents of unsound and detrimental beliefs have obscured the choice for social workers by systematically and thoroughly misrepresenting the heuristic paradigm, making unwarranted and misleading claims for the paradigms to which it is opposed (logical empiricism and relativism), and confusing the issues at stake for the field. Accordingly, this article helps social workers recognize …