causation, what comes first the chicken or the egg LOL

Question 1

cause

Answer 1

sn explanation for some characteristic attitude or behavior of groups individuals or other entities. ( such as families, gangs, police departments) or for events

Question 2

nomothetic

Answer 2

involves the belief that variation in an independent variable will be followed by variation in the dependent variable when all other things are equal.
Does POP reduce violent crime
does experiencing child abuse increase the likelihood that you will be a violent adult.
the result would have been different in the absence of variation in the independent variable(counterfactual)
no child abuse (absence of variation in independent variable)= nonviolent adult (different result in dependent variable ) -all else being equal.
there is a probabilistic relationship or average effect (quantitative research)
design research to create conditions that are comparable.

Question 3

idiographic

Answer 3

when a series of concrete events thoughts or actions result in a particular event or individual outcome.
specific to individual people and individual events.
also known as an individualistic o historic explanation.
includes statements of initial of events at different times that led to the outcome. *concerned with content
explanation is deterministic
because it is specific to one event /individual probabilistic relationship does not apply.
Pays close attention to time order and causal mechanisms, but difficult to make a convincing case that one particular causal narrative should be chosen

Question 4

NYC

Answer 4

continued to downward decline in rates

why? compstatt, safe stret safe cities program

Question 5

criteria for causation

Answer 5

empirical association: required, observable relationship that effect each other between variables.
time order: required,change must occur before on the dependent
non spurious: required, variations not due to a third party. created spurious relationship between the independent and dependent.
mechanism: process by which a connection is created between variation in an independent variable, and variation on the dependent variable.
context: the set of circumstance, surrounding an event of situations. no causal relation an be separated from a larger context from which it occurs. Culture, family life, a cause is one of set of interrelated factors required for the effect.

Question 6

emprical association

Answer 6

variation in one variable is related to variation in another
increase in traffic stops led to a decrease in accidents.
relationship must be observable- cannot be only assumed or believed. (emprical)
the independent variabele and the dependent variabel must vary together.

Question 7

time order

Answer 7

change in an independent variable must occur before a change in the dependent variable
ex: temp goes up leads to more violent behavior?
it is often diificult to establish cuase-effect relationships in social research, because it can be difficult to determine which came first.
drug abuse causes individuals

Question 8

Nonspuriousness

Answer 8

a relationship between two variables that is not due to variation in the third variable.
when this third variable (an extraneous variable) causes the variation, it creates a spurious relationship between the independent and dependent variable.
increase in ice cream sales leads to an increase in assualtive crime.
random assignment can reduce threats of spuriousness.
remember the old adage “ correlation does not prove causation”

Question 9

internal (causal) validity

Answer 9

must have:
association
time order
non spuriousness

Question 10

mechanism

Answer 10

process that creates the connection between variaton in an independent variable and the variation in the dependent variable it is hypothesized to cause.
high ambient temperatures cause violent behavior
mechanisms: high temperature cause increased agitation die to persistent uncomfortableness.

Question 11

context

Answer 11

the set of circumstance surrounding an event or situation . no causal relationship can be separated from some larger context in which it occurs.
a cause is one of a set of interrelated factors

Question 12

research designs and causality

Answer 12

experimental designs: true experiment and quasi-experiment.

non experimental:

Question 13

true experiments

Answer 13

an experimental group that is receiving the experimental condition ( I.E. treatment or intervention) and the control group that is not receiving the treatment or receiving another form of it.
random group assignment
assessment of change int the dependent variable for both groups after the experimental condition has been received.
a prerequisite for meeting each of the three criteria is maintaining control over the conditions subjects are exposed to after group assignment.
more difficult in social science. always some variation.

Question 14

Causality in true experimental designs

Answer 14

association: established by random group assignment,
control group provides information on what would have happened without the intervention all else being equal.
Time order: can be established by pretest and postest
nonspurious relationships: random assignment eliminates many extraneous influences that can creaste spurious relationships
Mechanisms: experimental designs cannot directly address this factor.

Question 15

nonexperimentlal designs: cross sectional

Answer 15

observations are made at one time point, a snapshot.
four special circumstances that can increase confidence in drawing conclusions about time order:
the independent variable is fixed at some point prior to the variation in the dependent variable ( gender, age, marital status)
we believe that respondents can give us reliable reoorts of hwat happend to them or what they thought at osme earlier point in time.
measures are based on records that contain information on cases in earlier periods ( arrests records, traffic tickets)
we know that the value if the dependent variable was similar for all cases prior to the treatment (math skills)
the use of life calendar and anchors can increase
accuracy if resonses( andchor daes/events.)
NEED TIME ORDER

Question 16

Non experimental designs: longitudinal

Answer 16

longitudinal research- data is collected at two or more points in time so that time order can be established.
repeated cross-sectional designs trend:
data are collected at two or more points in time from different samples of the same population
presidential candidate support
legalize that treeeee
appropriate designs when the foal is to determine whether a population has changed over time.

Question 17

Fixed-sample panel designs (longitudinal)

Answer 17

data are collected from the same individuals- the panel- at two or more points in time.
used when we need to know whether individuals in the population changed. changes in delinquency
two issues with this design:
cost and subject attrition: subjects drop out of a study or provide invalid info( subject fatigue)

Question 18

event or cohort based designs (longitudinal)

Answer 18

data are collected at two or more points in time from individuals in a concert.
individuals or groups that have a common starting point.
types of cohorts: birth, seniority and schools.
can be a type of repeated cross sectional designs o a type of panel designs.

Question 19

intervening variables

Answer 19

variables that are influenced by an independent an in turn influences variation in a dependent variable thus help in to explain the relationship between the independent and dependent variable.
family poverty…

Question 20

causality in a nonexperimental design

Answer 20

association can be established but other criteria of causality are more:
time order: can be difficult to esablish that change in the independent variable proceed to change in the dependent variable.
Nonspurious relationships: can use statistical controls, meaning that one variable is held constant so the relationships between two or more other variables can be examined apart from influence