This is the paperback edition of the classic Conceptualization and Measurement in the Social Sciences, first published in hardback in 1982. Blalock challenges social scientists to move beyond simple manipulation of numbers, for he believes that significant advances in methods are impossible without conceptual developments to give them meaning. He carefully describes the relationship between theory and method, examining central issues such as the generalizability and comparability of measurements, and the omission of important variables when analyzing data.