Causal Theory and Causal Research: An Historical Perspective

Author: 
Year:
Pages:304
ISBN:0-7734-3531-X
978-0-7734-3531-5
Price:$219.95 + shipping
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This reader friendly discussion of causality is a comprehensive analysis of the five conditions necessary for a causal effect to exist. Historical precursors of the standpoint are reviewed, and structural equations modeling (SEM) is used with large-scale data to illustrate the process associated with the test for these conditions.

Reviews

“This book provides an invaluable road map on how to harness this human thought process into a powerful method for studying cause-effect relationships. The reader will find in it an up-to-date and comprehensive theoretical view of causality and its study, and will likely find in it a motive to continue his or her study of causal theory and the modern process of causal research.”
-Dr. Sharon O’Connor-Petruso,
Brooklyn College, City University of New York


“The work provides a comprehensive historical survey of causality and contributes to the discussion of such an important topic as causal thinking and its applications to modern causal research…[in a] non-technical way the author provides comprehensive exposition of causal thinking and discusses the related issues from the essential components to the most advanced methods such as structural equation modeling used in causality research process.”
-Dr. Dan Wei,
Brooklyn College, City University of New York


“The book presents a concept of causation coordinating the five conditions of causality it introduces (concomitance, precedence, contiguity, consistency, and contexture with the five major variables (independent, dependent, intervening, confounding, and qualifying) used in modern statistical analysis in causal research…The author’s approach represents a significant contribution to scholarship in that it makes it easy for the generalist reader to understand the rationale for the modern approach to the study of causation and change – while requiring no previous knowledge of the subject on the part of the reader.”
-Dr. Leonard R. Mendola,
Touro College


Table of Contents

Foreword by Sharon O’Connor-Petruso
Preface
PART 1. FOUNDATIONS
Chapter 1: Epistemological Underpinnings
Chapter 2: Ontological Evolution in Causal Thinking
PART 2. A Conditional View of Causality
Chapter 3: The Conditions of Causality
Chapter 4: Causality, Variability and Variable Types
Chapter 5: Causality, Variable Types and Correlation
Chapter 6: Variable Types, Structural Equation Modeling and the Causal Research Process
Appendix A. Epistemology and Ontology in Causal Thinking
Appendix B. The Validity of Manipulative Methods of Data Generation
Appendix C. Issues Associated with Counterfactual Reasoning.
Appendix D. Confounding Effects
Appendix E. A Manipulative Causal Study
References
Index

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