The scientist's mission and professional involvement: A quantitative revisitation to the sociology of science

“Basic science” and “applied science” are tired labels in the sociology of science due to their use as a priori specifications on empirically nonrecognizable ideal types. A modification of the Thurstone scale construction technique is used to indicate a scientist's attitude toward his work. A continuum is empirically generated and suggests a higher order theoretical concept that subsumes both basic and applied science. The continuum suggests the two-fold concept of the “scientific mission.” A scientist's mission is: (a) his position on the continuum reflecting his interests relative to others in his discipline, and (b) the size of the locus about his position indicating the breadth or diffuseness of his interest-space. Using multiple correlation, the scientist's mission is related to his degree of professional involvement as measured by a seven item index. The seven items are scaled using principal components factor analysis and are shown to be highly related and form a usable index.