The social sciences are in need of an alternative to the variance approach to causal inference, which—because it requires a counterfactual—restricts the claim of valid inference to conclusions drawn from experimental and quasi-experimental methods. Process theory proposes an alternative by way of demonstrating the presence of observable characteristics of the causal mechanism, a method that, while accepted in principle, has proven elusive in practice. It is suggested that system dynamics can improve the process approach, and in so doing open a path for itself to wider application in the social sciences. Educational research is suggested as a place to start, and results from two models drawn on topics from that field are offered as examples.

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Date created

• 2005 July 17-2005 July 21

Type

• Document

Processing Activity

• Processing documentation available at: https://wiki.albany.edu/display/SCA/Processing+Ingested+Digital+Files

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• Creative Commons BY-NC-ND Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International

  
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ITEM CONTEXT

Part of

cc5bb0ac12a5b68b26b1583548898dae

Scope and Contents

Part of

3c582e6f5cf305ef0030c7471b499022

Scope and Contents

Part of

23d738ba88f8333bc39725f9cb5bd0b8

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Collection

System Dynamic Society Records

Scope and Contents

Collecting area

• This collection is part of the University Archives