Page 21 - Sociology and You

Determining Cause and Effect
Understanding cause and effect involves
determining why an event occurred. A
cause is the action or situation that pro-
duces an event. What happens as a result
of a cause is an effect. Despite the seem-
ing simplicity of this relationship, deter-
mining the true cause of an event is often
very difficult. This is the case because
there is seldom a single cause of any
effect. Like other scientists, sociologists
realize that almost all events occur as a result of several factors operating in combination. This viewpoint is known as the principle of multiple causation.
Learning the Skill
Just because two things happen at nearly the same time, or they seem to occur regularly together, does not mean that they have a causal relationship. To identify cause-and-effect relationships, follow these steps:
◆ Identify two or more events.
◆ Decide whether one event caused the other. Look for clue words such as because, led to, brought about, produced, as a result of, so that, since, and therefore.
◆ Look for logical relationships between events, such as “She overslept, and then she missed her bus.”
◆ Identify the outcomes of events. Remember that some effects have more than one cause, and some causes lead to more than one effect. Also, an effect can become the cause of yet another effect.
Practicing the Skill
Sociologists have studied the relationship between violence on television and violent behavior for many years. For decades, no one was willing to conclude that there was a cause-and-effect relationship between the two, but in 1999 the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation issued a report that estab- lished a causal link between viewing violence on television and increased levels of violent behavior among viewers.
1. Why do you think that earlier researchers were reluctant to say that watching violence on television caused violent behavior?
2. Why did the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation conclude that a cause- and-effect relationship does exist (see page 126 of the text)?
Calvin has obviously discovered the difficulties of determining cause-and-effect relationships.
Sociology Handbook HB-7