ABSTRACT
Questions about the effectiveness of social programs have long been a source of concern to the human service professions. In social work these questions became especially troublesome in the sixties following a series of experiments that failed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the interventions of professional social workers (Mullen & Dumpson, 1972; Fischer, 1973, 1976; Wood 1978). These studies, and reviews and critiques of them, sparked a continuing “effectiveness controversy” with fingers pointed at the credibility of the research, the adequacy of the services, and in a few other directions. While more recent experiments have given evidence that social work services can indeed be effective (Reid & Hanrahan, 1982; Rubin, 1985), the debate goes on (Fischer, 1983).
