Chapter nineteen - Exploring Causal and Noncausal Hypotheses in Nonexperimental Data

Summary

This chapter reviews the statistical methods used to explore causal (directional) and noncausal research questions. Researchers have often regarded some statistical procedures as experimental and other statistical procedures as nonexperimental (e.g., correlation, structural equation modeling). The chapter discusses practical issues that influence the implementation of the analysis and design features of the study relevant to that statistical procedure. The most widely used noncausal analysis in social-personality psychology is exploratory factor analysis (EFA). There are two major issues that should be taken into account when designing studies to be analyzed using EFA: selection of measured variables and selection of sample. The chapter overviews the major types of causal hypotheses. It explains the conditions necessary for establishing causal relations and comments on study design features and statistical procedures that assist in establishing these conditions. The chapter also reviews the statistical procedures used to test different types of causal hypotheses.