Title: Conclusion
Course: UGQuants (SSPS) > Section: Causality

Conclusion

After working through this module you should have learned...

1 | How provisional statements about causes come from theory, but can be tested against our empirical data
2 | How correlation is a necessary but insufficient condition of causation
3 | That correlation can be evidence of causation when all relevant prior variables have been controlled
4 | What is meant by experimental control
5 | How in the social sciences experiments are rarely feasible
6 | What is meant by controlling for prior and intervening variables
7 | What we mean by the Fallacy of Affirming the Consequent (FAC)
8 | What is meant by theory elaboration
9 | How to read a causal path diagram
10 | How to interpret a three way contingency table
11 | How to construct a causal path diagram for the relationship between 3 variables and use evidence from contingency tables to decide which causal path best fits the evidence.

The appendix to this module briefly describes all the various combinations of causal path that can be theorised for three variables. You need not memorise it, but you should be able to understand the different patterns of prior and intervening variables that are possible.