Causation In social science studies, events and conditions all have causes. As sociologist seek for the causes for social events, their approaches are called determinism. Natural sciences widely apply deterministic model such as growth of human being is affected by nutrition and inheritance factors. Similarly large number of social science studies use deterministic model to investigate causing factors for social events

Finding Causes in Social Science Why the foundation providing a million dollar support to your prejudice research rejected your research conclusion that follows “We discovered that some people are racially prejudiced and some are not” The foundation is looking at some explanations/causes why some people become prejudiced and some do not. Such influential factors appeared in many prejudice research report: economic competition, religious ideology, political view, childhood experience, education.

Causes in Social Science Studies in juvenile delinquency uncover the causing factors for the delinquent behaviors that other than the delinquent’s free choice Social scientists seek understandings of social events, construct causal explanations, and use deterministic model of human behavior. Some social scientists do not construct causal models, but in pursuing the linkages/associations/relationship among social variables, they inevitably use deterministic model

Causation in Idiographic Model Emphasizing multiplicity of reasons that can account for a specific behavior provides an illustration of idiographic explanation, which aims at explanation by enumerating the many reasons that lie behind a particular events or action For example, historians can enumerate all the specific causes of the French revolution or perpetual conflicts in the Balkans A criminologist may look into all possible causes for defendants for a specific crime

Pacifici’s Discourse Analysis Philadelphia eradication of a civil right group MOVE has killed 11 people and destroyed 2 urban block in 1985 Waco, Texas Dissecting the meaning of communication, Pacifici discovered that police pronouncement is best considered as “a discourse of war”, which makes sense of the tragic results that ensue the conflict.

Causality in nomothetic model Unlike idiographic model that enumerate all the considerations that result in a particular action or event, nomothetic model aim at discovering those most important considerations that explain general classes of actions/events

Comparison of idiographic and nomothetic models Idiographic model to explain prejudice Try to understand why a particular person chooses to be prejudiced, emphasizing a large number of idiosyncratic conditions and experiences Nomothetic model seek factors that affect levels of prejudice. For example more educated people are less prejudiced than less educated people. Nomothetic model is often accused of dehumanizing the individuals. For example, nomothetic model explain religiosity is a function of gender, age, marital status, and social class

Comparison of idiographic and nomothetic models 2 Although both methods are looking for causality, they commonly use different types of data. Trying to obtain a great depth of detailed information surrounding a social event, idiographic models normally use qualitative data In contrast, nomothetic model often use quantitative data to show a general pattern. For example, idiographic model can produce full accounts for the reasons for a person’s homelessness, whereas nomthetic model can generally tell whether education and gender are predictors for homelessness

Criteria for Causality Relationship between variables does not equal causality Democratics prefer strawberry to vanilla ice cream How to determine the causality (one thing causes another)? (1) credibility or believability of the story (2) whether rival hypotheses are seriously considered

Lazarsfeld’s Three Criteria Time order, the cause must precede the effect receive education first, become less prejudiced second Some time the time order is no easy to establish. Parental education affects children education. But in some rare cases, parents go to school due to the advanced education of their children The two variables are empirically related Pearson’s correlation coefficients, regression coefficients. How strong to be strong, how significant to be significant

Lazarsfeld’s Three Criteria 2 A casual relation between two variables can not be explained by a third variable Drowning death Ice cream sale Season’s effect

Causality Researchers report a causality when (1) cause precede the effect (event history analysis wins over cross-sectional multivariable regression); (2) empirical correlation high (Pearson’s correlation coefficients); and (3) no spuriousness

Necessary and Sufficient Causes Necessary cause: a condition that must be present for the effect to follow But a necessary condition does not guarantee the occurrence of the effect, not all the women are pregnant Women Pregnant

Sufficient condition A condition, if it is present, guarantees the effect Skipping a test Failing the test Other Causes

Difference Between Necessary and Sufficient Conditions Women Pregnant

Sufficient and Necessary Conditions Having enough money Buying a house Contracting AIDS Drug use