SOCB05H3 Lecture Notes - Cohort Study, Nomothetic, Spurious Relationship
Document Summary
Idiographic explanation what are all the factors that may have caused the phenomenon of interest. Nomothetic explanation what are the most important factors that caused the phenomenon of interest. Establishing casual relationship: correlation: an empirical relationship between two variables where: Changes in one variable are associated with changes in the other. Particular attricutes of one variable are associated with particular attributes of the other. Temoral ordering: the cause must precede the effect in time, not vice versa. Some attributes are fixed at birth, so the cause-effect sequence is easy to establish. With other variables, it is difficult to determine temporal ordering. Non-spuriousness: spurious relationship = a correlataion between two variables that is actually caused by a third variables that is actually caused by a third variable. Necessary and sufficeient causes: necessary cause a condition that must be present for the effect to follow, sufficient cause a condition that guarantees the effect.
