A Meaningful Score

Hartman v. Rokeach

Abstract

Robert S. Hartman and Milton Rokeach were contemporaries. Each espoused a theory of values, and each developed a value profile based on his theory. Their value instruments each require the respondent to stack-rank eighteen items twice. On the surface, their work was very similar, but there the similarities end. This article compares and contrasts their value theories and their value instruments. Each approach has merits and limitations. In Chapter Ten of his book, The Knowledge of Good, Hartman launches a broadside at the social science methods generally practiced in his day. The author of this article interprets Rokeach's work as prototypical of the generally accepted social science practices against which Hartman railed. This comparison serves as an aid to comprehending Hartman's argument as espoused in Chapter Ten. At the time that Rokeach and Hartman lived and wrote, positivism held sway over the methodologies of the social sciences. It is little wonder, then, that approaches such as Rokeach's rose to prominence. In the years since, this has changed. The social sciences have opened themselves to other ways of validating truth claims. Ironically, it may be that the "science" advocated by Hartman will find a friendlier audience among post-positivists than it did among empirical researchers of his own time.