Refracted knowledge: Viewing families through the prism of social science

I reinforce a vision for family science in which we routinely step back fro m our research to consider the fit of the empirical world with the reality of everyday life. This vision suggests that we pursue the methodological ad vances of the past decade. but remain mindful of the limitations of the sci entific approach. Such mindfulness will help us attend to both similarity a nd variability in families and in family-life experience. A responsible soc ial science also requires that we attend to rhetoric or how we communicate. I reflect on the practice of humility as a way to achieve these goals.