Foster (2010). Causal inference and developmental psychology.” – Article summary

The problem of causality is difficult in developmental psychology, as many questions of that field regard factors that a person cannot be randomly assigned to (e.g. single parent family). Causal inference refers to the study and measurement of cause-and-effect relationships outside of random assignment.

In the current situation in developmental psychology, it is unclear among researchers whether causality can be implied and why. Causal inferences are necessary for the goals of developmental psychology because causal inferences can improve the lives of people (1), can help distinguish between associations and causal claims for laypeople (2) and causal thinking is unavoidable (3).

The directed acyclic graph (DAG) is a tool which is useful in moving from associations to causal relationships. It is particularly useful in identifying covariates and understanding the anticipated consequences of incorporating these variables.

The DAG is a symbolic representation of dependencies among variables. The causal Markov assumption states that the absence of a path (in the DAG) implies the absence of a relationship. In the DAG, models that represent data with fewer links are preferred to the more complex (parsimony). If two variables are simultaneously determined, the DAG could incorporate this possibility by treating the two as reflecting a common cause.

Variables (in the DAG) can be related in three ways:

  1. Z is a common cause of X and Y
    In this case, Z needs to be controlled for.
  2. Z is a common effect of X and Y
    This is a collider. Conditioning on a collider creates a spurious relationship between X and Y. This relationship can suppress or inflate a true causal effect.
  3. Z mediates the effect of X on Y

     

Image

Access: 
Public

Image

Join WorldSupporter!
This content is used in:

Scientific & Statistical Reasoning – Summary interim exam 3 (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)

Scientific & Statistical Reasoning – Article summary (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)

Search a summary

Image

 

 

Contributions: posts

Help other WorldSupporters with additions, improvements and tips

Add new contribution

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.

Image

Spotlight: topics

Check the related and most recent topics and summaries:
Institutions, jobs and organizations:
Activity abroad, study field of working area:
This content is also used in .....

Image

Check how to use summaries on WorldSupporter.org

Online access to all summaries, study notes en practice exams

How and why use WorldSupporter.org for your summaries and study assistance?

  • For free use of many of the summaries and study aids provided or collected by your fellow students.
  • For free use of many of the lecture and study group notes, exam questions and practice questions.
  • For use of all exclusive summaries and study assistance for those who are member with JoHo WorldSupporter with online access
  • For compiling your own materials and contributions with relevant study help
  • For sharing and finding relevant and interesting summaries, documents, notes, blogs, tips, videos, discussions, activities, recipes, side jobs and more.

Using and finding summaries, notes and practice exams on JoHo WorldSupporter

There are several ways to navigate the large amount of summaries, study notes en practice exams on JoHo WorldSupporter.

  1. Use the summaries home pages for your study or field of study
  2. Use the check and search pages for summaries and study aids by field of study, subject or faculty
  3. Use and follow your (study) organization
    • by using your own student organization as a starting point, and continuing to follow it, easily discover which study materials are relevant to you
    • this option is only available through partner organizations
  4. Check or follow authors or other WorldSupporters
  5. Use the menu above each page to go to the main theme pages for summaries
    • Theme pages can be found for international studies as well as Dutch studies

Do you want to share your summaries with JoHo WorldSupporter and its visitors?

Quicklinks to fields of study for summaries and study assistance

Main summaries home pages:

Main study fields:

Main study fields NL:

Follow the author: JesperN
Work for WorldSupporter

Image

JoHo can really use your help!  Check out the various student jobs here that match your studies, improve your competencies, strengthen your CV and contribute to a more tolerant world

Working for JoHo as a student in Leyden

Parttime werken voor JoHo

Statistics
2295