The Scientific Training of Introductory Sociology Students: Seventeen Years Later *

To measure the level of effectiveness with which the scientific basis of sociology is presented to introductory students, questionnaires were administered to two hundred students enrolled in three comparable sections of introductory sociology at a large state university. These indicated that students in general began the course almost totally ignorant of science and, when subjected to conventional introductory sociology materials, ended the course at the same level–a finding consistent with that of a similar study conducted seventeen years before.