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When trying to establish a new area of knowledge in psychology, proving that the aspects of research are causally linked is the epitome of sound research. It conclusively proves variables are related and advances the field of knowledge on the topic for further research.
Psychological research aims to scientifically discover more about the mind and behaviour.
Psychology piecing head jigsaw pieces together, freepik.com/rawpixel.com
Psychologists apply the scientific method to carry out their research. The findings from research can be considered empirical if carried out properly.
Causation in psychology is understanding phenomena in terms of cause and effect and relating the two conclusively. This means that the research should state:
The phrase ceteris paribus, meaning all other things being equal, relates to establishing a causal relationship in research. The independent variable must change/affect the dependent variable, ceteris paribus, to rule out extraneous variables.
When carrying out research that tests causal relationships, there are four rules researchers have to consider:
A researcher should find a significant pattern that indicates that as one variable increases, the other must also increase or decrease.
A graph indicating the link between two variables, freepik.com/pch.vector
Imagine researching how sleep deprivation affects exam results. For a causal relationship to be established, you need to observe that exam results changed from before students were sleep-deprived and rule out other variables (lack of food and poor diet affecting concentration levels, for instance).
Research that found sleep deprivation affected students' exam results. However, when the study was replicated, this causal relationship was no longer found when the exam took place in the morning. This suggests that the time exam is taken may be the cause rather than sleep deprivation.
Chance in psychology research is the probability that the results measured resulted from an error/pure chance.
There are research and theory examples of causation in psychology. These have been carried out/postulated to identify if a cause-and-effect can explain the phenomena.
Experimental research is a research example of causation in psychology. In this type of research:
The independent variable is manipulated to see if changes in this affect the dependent variable. Therefore causation in experimental research hypothesises that:
Diagram illustrating causation processes, flaticon.com/premium-icon
A theory example of causation in psychology is the social causation theory.
The social causation theory in psychology proposes that mental health/disease results from social conditions and/or social interactions. For instance, not having enough money to pay bills is the reason for a mental breakdown.
The social causation theory has been applied to psychology and has found that people from lower socioeconomic classes are more likely to develop psychiatric disorders.
This is evidence of a theory example of causation in psychology as the theory explains and describes:
Let's discuss the strengths and weaknesses of causation in psychology research.
The strengths of investigating causation relationships in psychology are:
The weaknesses of investigating causation relationships in psychology are:
It is important to note that not all research can infer causation relationships between two variables. The difference between correlation and causation psychology is:
The social causation theory psychology is an example of a causation theory. This theory explains and describes:
Causation research allows the researcher to identify if a change in a variable affects another. Whereas, in correlational research, cause-and-effect cannot be established.
The causation in psychology definition is the understanding of a phenomena in terms of cause and effect. This means that the research should state:
When carrying out research testing causation relationships, there are four rules of causation in psychology that need to be considered:
Experimental research can be used to determine causation in psychology. In this research method, the independent variable is manipulated to see if changes in this have an effect on the dependent variable. Therefore causation in experimental research hypothesises that:
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