Creating Models in Psychological Research by Olivier Mesly

Author:Olivier Mesly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Fig. 8.2The causal arrow

There is no choice for the bubble on the right: it will necessarily occur given the bubble on the left (unlike a longitudinal study), 100 % of the time. Given a specific level of atmospheric pressure, water that is heated starts evaporating. Heat causes the water to evaporate: it will always evaporate given the appropriate heating level. The effect can be positive or negative; for example, some researchers state that smoking causes lung cancer, which is a negative outcome (yet others fight this conclusion vehemently). It is an error to have double-headed arrows (or chained arrows) with causal relationships.

One way of convincing oneself that anger is caused by a sense of unfairness is to look at other kinds of populations, where this always occurs. For example, Seymour et al. (2007 p. 306) observe that “… chimpanzees attack allies that do not support them in third party conflicts, and queen naked mole rats will attack workers that they judge to be lazy”. This may not be a proof but a strong indication of the assumption that chimpanzees realize that there is unfairness and that they react upon this realization. In their study, Basen-Engquist et al. (2013, p. 1137) resort to the concept of causal relationships as follows: “The consistency of the relationship between self-efficacy and exercise minutes over short (same day) and longer (Tj–Tj-1) time periods provides support for a causal relationship.” Thus, causal links have found a place in psychological studies. Golden et al. (1987, p. 5) note: “Similarly, the cognitive-behavioral hypnotherapist assumes a direct causal link between cognitions or self-suggestions and emotional and behavioral consequences.” Hence, here a causal link is assumed to take place.

The difficulty in doing research can be classified as follows (Table 8.1):

Table 8.1The research’s level of difficulty

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