Causation in Psychology

Causation in Psychology Definition

When trying to establish a new area of knowledge in psychology, showing that the aspects of research are causally linked is the epitome of sound research.

Psychologists apply the scientific method to carry out their research. The findings from the research can be considered empirical if carried out properly. For research to be accepted by the psychology community, the investigated variables should be observable (empirical research), and the research and its results should be reliable and valid.

Causation research should state:

• The cause - describes what happens.
• The effect - explains what happens as a consequence of the cause.

Experimental research is a form of causation research. It takes place in a controlled setting and attempts to understand the causation relationship between two variables.

In the research, the independent variable is manipulated (hypothesised as the cause of the phenomenon). And the effect this has on the dependent variable is measured.

Rules of Causation: Psychology

When carrying out research that tests causal relationships, there are four rules researchers have to consider.

The first rule of causation is testing an association to establish a causation relationship between two variables, and these must be empirically tested. The findings from testing the association must have either an association or show some significant pattern or trend when empirically tested.

The temporal order between the cause and effect must be sequential; this means that the researcher needs to observe the cause first and then see the effect.

The sequential order allows the researcher to identify that the effect occurred due to the cause.

The third rule of causation is nonspuriousness. Nonspuriousness means that causal relationships should not result from external variables (confounding/ extraneous variables).

If this is the case, it can be assumed that the external variables may explain the effect observed in the independent variable better than the dependent variable.

And the final rule of causation is chance. Researchers must ensure that the results found did not occur due to chance. If the results did not occur because of chance, similar results would be found when the study is replicated. Thus, the research has high validity and reliability. Chance is a statistical percentage that is measured via statistical tests.

Difference Between Correlation and Causation Psychology

It is important to note that not all research can infer causation relationships between two variables. The difference between correlation and causation psychology is that causation research allows the researcher to identify that a change in a variable causes a change in another variable.

The difference between correlation and causation psychology is that the researcher cannot establish if the results are due to chance or confounding/extraneous variables in correlational research, as external influences can't be controlled.

Example of Causation in Psychology

There are research and theory examples of causation in psychology. These have been carried out/postulated to identify if cause-and-effect relationships can explain the phenomena.

Experimental research is a research example of causation in psychology. In this type of research, the aim is to test causation relationships between variables scientifically..

The scientific process involves:

• First, the researcher proposes a hypothesis describing the causation relationship they expect to find.
• Then, the researcher empirically tests the hypothesis, which is done by observing what happens to a variable (dependent variable) when the other is manipulated (independent variable).
• Variables that are not supposed to be investigated may affect the dependent variable (confounding/extraneous variables), so they need to be controlled.

The independent variable is manipulated to see if changes in this affect the dependent variable. Therefore causation in experimental research hypothesises that:

• The independent variable is the cause.
• The dependent variable is the effect.

The Social Causation Theory: Psychology

An example of causation in psychology is the social causation theory.

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 an example of a causation theory as it explains and describes:

• the cause - lower socioeconomic class;
• and the effect - a higher risk of developing psychiatric disorders.

Evaluation of Causation in Psychology Research

Let's discuss the strengths and weaknesses of causation in psychology research.

The strengths of investigating causation relationships in psychology are:

• Understanding causation in psychology is important because it allows psychologists to understand how factors/ actions can affect behaviour empirically. This can be applied to clinical psychology to help create interventions and to reduce risk factors.

• Specific statistical tests have been created to help understand cause-and-effect relationships. Because cause and effect can be measured using statistical analysis, the results are data-driven. The data-driven results allow the validity and reliability of the results to be tested.

The weaknesses of investigating causation relationships in psychology are:

• It isn't easy to control all confounding/extraneous variables in research, making it difficult for researchers to identify with certainty the cause of the effects and the validity of the results.

• A phenomenon's cause-and-effect relationship may describe the association between two variables; however, it may not be useful in understanding the mediational processes that cause the effect, limiting the research's utility.