Example 2: Causation

• To prove causation in this case, you must show:
  • Temporal order: to prove temporal order here, you must show that throughout time the two concepts have always been related. For example, you could look at an increase in funding at one point in time and the amount of people in poverty later, possibly as a outcome.
  • Association: you must use statistical measures to prove that there is a relationship (positive in this case) between educational funding and poverty.
  • Eliminate other alternatives: you must look for other things that could effect both of these variables. For example, perhaps a state has more non-native english speakers than others, reducing the effect of education.
• You must avoid common logic problems such as:
  • Teleology: by saying "god favors those who work hard to learn"
  • Tautology: by saying "because people are educated they have cultural capital, so they are not really poor"
  • Ecological fallacy: by using data from the state level to apply to the individual level, saying "states that have more funding for education have less poverty, therefore people who are more educated will make more money."

Now you must go into a program such as Microcase to find your data. For an overview of that process, Click here.