PATRICIA KENDALL

W HEN I was invited to contribute a chapter on medical sociology to this
volume, I felt it an unusual opportunity to examine the interplay be-
tween Merton's theoretical concerns and empirical research in which
he and I were engaged for some years.

This topic seemed particularly appropriate in view of Merton's well-
known and long-standing interest in the reciprocal relations between theory
and research. "Sociological Theory" (when this article was reprinted it was
given a new title: "The Bearing of Sociological Theory on Empirical Re-
search") and the complementary article, "The Bearing of Empirical Research
upon the Development of Sociological Theory," were first published in 1945
and 1948, respectively. ¹ As the titles of these articles suggest, on the one hand
theoretical statements can lead to empirical investigation, and, on the other
hand, research can prove crucial in the development of theory.

It will turn out, as our analysis proceeds, that there is a third way in which
theory can be related to research. This is when both develop simultaneously,
when, in other words, it is impossible to determine whether the theory pre-
ceded the research, or the other way around.

Rather than discuss the topic in the abstract, I shall use, for reference
points, parts of an unpublished paper that I wrote in 1960, as the studies on
medical education carried out by the Bureau of Applied Social Research,

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