There is a growing awareness among scientists and researchers in every field that the selection of problems for research, the guiding theories, the interpretation of evidence, and resulting conclusions can be, and in fact often are, shaped by political or social ideology. If infused with keenly critical vigilance, such awareness affords the best safeguard to the integrity of research workers. Researchers need not be helpless puppets of one or another social ideology. Indeed, the work of researchers is justified only in its ability to fulfill the ideal of scientific objectivity. The purpose and products of research fulfill a potentially valuable role in society by exerting a unique and independent force in the political scene. The heredity-environment issue can provide a test case of the Marxist sociology of science. The evidence for this test case refutes the notion that the conclusions of research in the human sciences only reflect the ideology of the groups in power. (Author/BW)