ABSTRACT
In my undergraduate program in family studies, I had an instructor who during a class asked students to raise their hands if they disliked research, statistics, and math. Nearly every hand shot up amid chuckles of recogni tion. He then commented that this was just as he had expected, and that in his opinion this is one of the primary reasons students gravitate toward fam ily science and other social sciences, including marriage and family therapy. He explained that students of family science in particular and the social sci ences in general can succeed without analytical and research skills and without interest! (A point with which I absolutely disagree.) I do not re member the specific reasons he gave for this-I think he said something about family studies and therapy are driven more by informal theory than by formal theory and the results of research. As a faculty member in a family science/family therapy program now, I have observed that many, if not most, of my students do not have a particular interest in research and that most profess a lack of analytic skill. This is true not only at the undergraduate level. Research methods and statistics courses are often dreaded and, in many cases, put off until they cannot be avoided any longer. It is almost as if students are secretly hoping that the program requirements will change so that these courses will be eliminated as requirements before they have to take them. In fact, I would guess that most of you reading this chapter are doing so begrudgingly.
