THE OBJECTIVES OF SOCIOLOGICAL TRAINING.

This article discusses the objectives of sociological training. Those who are concerned with the staffing of liberal arts colleges would minimize the time devoted to training for research, while many non-academic employers are interested only in intensive training in a narrow range of research techniques. To yield to demands for speedier production of advanced degrees at the price of neglecting either research training or broad study of the corpus of sociology as a whole would threaten the future development of sociology as a scientific discipline. Thus, to the perennial problem of combining the training of teachers with that of research scholars, there has been added a third dimension the preparation of technical specialists for jobs in governmental, commercial, and other types of organizations. Graduate schools cannot evade the question of the extent to which they should offer special programs for those intending to engage in activities ranging all the way from market research and delinquency control to consultation on technical assistance to "underdeveloped" nations.