Sociology 2206A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Casual Dating, Internal Validity, Social Experiment

• School: Western University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: Sociology 2206A/B
• Professor: Stephen Lin

Document Summary

Cause (iv) - an explanation of a characteristic, attitude, behavior, or event. Cause effect (dv) - change in one variable leads to change in another variable, (other things be equal. Requirements of causal inference: direction of influence (time order) X -> y: statistical association (^^ or ^ down, elimination of rival/ extraneous/ confounding explanations or spuriousness. Strong in testing a casual relationship (internal validity: testing one causal factor one at a time. Basics of a true experiment: comparison groups, experimental/ treatment vs. control, constancy of conditions across groups (besides the treatment, the logic behind. Random assignment: minimize the pre-existing differences before the experiment. Internal validity; causality: problematic in real life (practicality of experimental design) Process of experiment: manipulation of iv (treatment, measurement of dv (time order) Interval validity: rules out possibility of extraneous variables, random assignment, treatment and control group treated exactly alike except iv (cause)