Lipsey, Mark W.

(b. 1946, Iowa City, Iowa). Ph.D. Psychology, Johns Hopkins University; B.S. Applied Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology.

The main focus of Lipsey's work has related to the synthesis of evaluation research findings to describe the cumulative evidence about the effects of social programs. This has involved application of meta-analysis techniques, with which he focused mainly on the area of antisocial behavior. He has also contributed to the methodological discussion in evaluation, especially with regard to the statistical power and [Page 231]“design sensitivity” of experimental and quasiexperimental designs for field research.

His interest and orientation to evaluation were strongly influenced by Don Campbell, especially his works on quasiexperimentation and evolutionary epistemology that appeared during the years when Lipsey was in graduate school. Initially Lipsey was a physics major at Georgia Tech, but he was lured into psychology by some interesting elective classes in social psychology that hooked him on the idea that one could use scientific methods to understand and, perhaps, alleviate social problems. This path was further consolidated in graduate school, where his cohort came through during the days when “social relevance” was the hot issue for psychology.

Lipsey had the good fortune to be recruited to a faculty position in a new program in public affairs psychology that Arthur Brayfield was launching at Claremont Graduate School to develop the contribution of psychology to social issues. Expansion of his interest in Campbell's methods for field experimentation and quasiexperimentation followed naturally, and he joined the movement at the time (the early 1970s) that launched program evaluation as a research specialty area. Over the 20 years he was at Claremont Graduate School, and continuing to this day, an extraordinary number of doctoral students have been trained in evaluation and gone on to make careers in that or related areas.

Lipsey has authored or coauthored several books aimed at graduate students and new evaluators on meta-analysis, design sensitivity, and general evaluation methods, including the most recent edition of the widely used text Evaluation: A Systematic Approach (with Rossi and Freeman).