Causation

1
Causation

• Causal Claim
• Relevant Difference and Common Thread
• Causation in Populations
• Controlled Cause-to-Effect Experiments
• Non-experimental Cause-to-Effect and
  Effect-to-Cause Experiments
• Appeals to Anecdotal Evidence

2
Marriage Rates v Marriage Satisfaction
3
Guns and Aggression

• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
  http//seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/269482_gun0
  9.html
• Study links guns, aggression in men
  Tuesday, May 9, 2006
• By BENEDICT CAREY THE NEW
  YORK TIMES
• Handling a gun stirs a hormonal reaction in men
  that primes them for aggression, new research
  suggests.
• Psychologists at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill.,
  enrolled 30 male students in what they described
  as a taste study. The researchers took saliva
  samples from the students and measured
  testosterone levels.
• They then seated the young men, one at a time, at
  a table in a bare room on the table were pieces
  of paper and either the board game Mouse Trap or
  a large handgun. Their instructions Take apart
  the game or the gun and write directions for
  assembly and disassembly.
• Fifteen minutes later, the psychologists measured
  saliva testosterone again and found that the
  levels had spiked in men who had handled the gun
  but had stayed steady in those working with the
  board game.
• The "taste sensitivity" phase of the experiment
  was in fact intended to measure aggressive
  impulses.
• After the writing assignment, the young men were
  asked to rate the taste of a drink, a cup of
  water with a drop of hot sauce in it.
• The men were then told to prepare a drink for the
  next person in the experiment, adding as much hot
  sauce as they liked.
• "Those who had handled the gun put in about three
  times as much as the others -- 13 grams on
  average, which is a lot," said Tim Kasser, one of
  the authors.
• He worked with Francis McAndrew, also of Knox,
  and Jennifer Klinesmith, a former student.
• Critics of research linking guns to
  aggressiveness have argued that people who handle
  guns in experiments tend to act out or think
  violent thoughts simply because they sense the
  expectations of the experimenters.

4
Effects of television violence on especially
vulnerable groups

• Children from minority groups.
• Children who are emotionally disturbed or who
  have learning disabilities
• Children who are abused by parents.
• Families in distress
• 1-See, for example, Berry and Mitchell-Kernan,
  1982 Granzberg, 1985 Greenberg, 1986
• and Zohoori, 1988.
• 2-See Sprafkin et al., 1992, for an extensive
  review.
• 3-See Donohue et al., 1988 and Heath et al.,
  1986.
• 4-See, for example, Henggeler et al., 1991
  Tangney, 1988 and Tangney and Feshbach,
• 1988.

5
Children from minority and immigrant groups

• These children are particularly vulnerable
  because they tend to watch a great deal of
  television.
• Immigrant children may watch entertainment
  programs with the intent of learning more about
  the culture of their new country.
• Children from minority groups may not see many
  actors from their own culture represented, and
  those that they do see may be presented in a
  stereotyped or devalued way (for example, a
  member of a minority group being presented as the
  "bad guy").
• A particular concern in Canada is the potential
  of television to "homogenize" cultures in a way
  that undermines cultural values.

6
Children who are emotionally disturbed or who
have learning disabilities.

• These children may also watch a great deal of
  television and may prefer violent programs.
• They are more likely than other children to
  perceive television content as accurately
  reflecting the real world, and they may identify
  with violent characters.

7
Children who are abused by parents.

• Abused children watch more television than other
  children do, prefer violent programs, and appear
  to admire
• violent heroes.
• Children who are both abused and watchers of a
  great deal of television are likely to commit
  violent crimes later in life

8
Families in distress

• Children whose families are under high levels of
  stress watch more television and may receive less
  parental mediation of their television viewing
  and less support from their parents than other
  children do.