Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences |
Editors | James D Wright |
Publisher | Elsevier Inc. |
Pages | 247-250 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Edition | 2 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9780080970875 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780080970868 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 26 2015 |
Abstract
This article examines the history of causal research traditions in the social sciences. We identify two major bases for the methods and logic of causal analysis in the social sciences - experimental designs and statistical methods - and discuss the developments in these two correlated research traditions, especially the implications of these developments for the social sciences. While the focus of our discussion is on the developments in western societies, we also briefly review prominent features of causal analysis in the social sciences in non-western societies.
Keywords
- Causal analysis
- Causality
- Confounding
- Counterfactuals
- Experiment
- Experimental design
- Experimentation
- Field experiment
- Hypothesis testing
- Quasi-experiment
- Quasi-experimentation
- Selection bias
- Statistical analysis
- Statistics
- Structural equation modeling
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Social Sciences