Causal Situation Research Articles

Some Explanatory Issues with Woodward’s Notion of Intervention

ABSTRACT James Woodward’s manipulationist counterfactual theory of explanation offers strong tools for an adequate approach to explanation endeavours. One of these tools is the notion of intervention, which serves as a guiding principle for identifying explanations as causal, thus preserving the unidirectionality of explanatory praxis. Nevertheless, in this paper, I argue that in some cases of explanation, this notion has a rather redundant role since it is either impossible to define or it can be replaced by other types of manipulations or both. I shall show these shortcomings of intervention in two particularly detailed analyses of an economic example pertaining to Okun’s law and the pendulum explanation. In analysing the former example, I contend that given the complex causal situation of economic phenomena, the notion of intervention is inept at helping explain them. In the latter example, I show that the notion of intervention is readily replaceable by other types of variation—conceptual or mathematical. Finally, I shall end this article by examining the case of pendulum explanation in light of Woodward’s new approach to explanation direction. In the end, the conclusion is that the variables of the pendulum law are in a symmetrical relationship.

Elevated fasting insulin results in snoring: A view emerged from causal evaluation of glycemic traits and snoring.

Snoring and impaired glucose metabolism are common clinical manifestations and associated. The purpose of our study is to estimate the causal associations between snoring and glycemic traits. We compared the weighted mean differences (WMD) for fasting insulin (FINS), glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c), fasting blood glucose (FBG) and 2 h-glucose post-challenge (2hGlu) levels between snorers and non-snorers by meta-analysis. Then, we obtained summary statistics from published GWAS of snoring and glycemic traits to perform bidirectional two-sample MR. Inverse variance weighting (IVW) method was applied as major estimate while MR Egger, Weighted median and MR-Robust Adjusted Profile Score (RAPS) played a subsidiary role. Snoring participants had higher FBG (WMD=0.14 mmol/L, 95%CI=[0.10,0.19]), HbA1c (WMD=0.10%, 95%CI=[0.07,0.13]), FINS (WMD=0.92μIU/mL, 95%CI=[0.59,1.26]) and 2hGlu (WMD=0.30 mmol/L, 95%CI=[0.06,0.55]) levels than non-snorers. Further, elevated FINS levels shown robust causal effect on snoring (IVW: OR=1.07, 95%CI=[1.02,1.12], p=2.2 × 10-3 ), which was consistent by complementary methods of MR Egger (OR=1.14, 95%CI=[1.01-1.30], p=4.72 × 10-2 ), Weighted median (OR=1.11, 95%CI=[1.07,1.15], p=1.53 × 10-7 ) and MR RAPS (OR=1.07, 95% CI=[1.05,1.10], p=2.81 × 10-9 ). Such causal situation was stable after identifying and removing the outliers in sensitivity analysis. However, there was no causality of snoring on increasing FINS levels. Additionally, there were no causal associations between snoring and other three traits of FBG, HbA1c and 2hGlu levels from either direction. Snorers are subjected to higher FBG, HbA1c, FINS and 2hGlu levels, and elevated FINS levels further provides robust causality on snoring, suggesting that behind common snoring may lie hyperinsulinemia or insulin resistance.

프리랜서 무용 강사들의 SNS 활용에 관한 근거이론적 접근

In this study, the purpose of this study was to analyze in depth how freelance dance instructors, who are non-regular workers, are creating their professional identity and career by responding to their professional reality through the use of SNS(social networking service, social media). First, the concepts and categories for SNS use of freelance dance instructors were defined, and 89 concepts, 14 sub-categories, and 7 super-categories were derived by open coding. Second, the structure of how freelance dance instructors form their professional identity through the use of SNS was derived, and based on this, a paradigm model could be produced. Specifically, in deriving a paradigm model for freelance dance instructors'' SNS utilization, ''restriction of activity due to covid19'' was defined as a central phenomenon, and the causal situation that caused it was interpreted as ''multiple motive for usage''. And as a context situation between the central phenomenon and the causal situation, it was shown as ‘strategic image making’. In addition, the interaction strategy to solve the central phenomenon is ''the maintenance of career as the maintenance of the identity of a dancer'', and the mediating situations between the central phenomenon and the mutual strategy are derived as ''means for public relation for a job seeking activity, confirmation of on-line presence, and withdrawal symptoms''. Through these experiences and processes, the existence of an SNS account was revealed as a result of ''another identity as an owner-operator''.

The participation process of PEAK program for collegiate Taekwondo athletes: A grounded theory approach

Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore the process of participation in the PEAK program of collegiate athletes based on grounded theory. Methods In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 athletes from Y University who were registered in Korea Taekwondo Association. The collected data were analyzed by using the open coding, axis coding, and selective coding of the grounded theory, completed the paradigm model among the extracted concepts, and extracted the core categories through the story outline. Results As the result of data analysis, 'participating in the PEAK program' was found as the central phenomenon, and the causal situation was 'bad attitude in class' and 'helpless daily life'. The contextual conditions were 'recognition of the need for class participation and dual career' and 'motivation to participate in the program', and the intervening conditions were 'factors that hinder participation in the program' and 'factors that help program participation'. The action/interaction strategies were ‘caring climate’ and ‘promoting transfer’, and depending on the consequence, ‘learning attitude change’ and ‘life skill change’ appeared. Conclusion Participants improved their learning attitude through the PEAK program and confirmed the possibility of life skills transfer. It is hoped that this study can lead to implementation of various studies and discussions about life skills and transfer.

Doing and Allowing in the Context of Physician-Assisted Suicide

Supporting the (active) rational suicide of a patient with a terminal disease is opposed by a majority of German doctors, whereas assistance in such patients’ hastening their death by voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED) is predominantly judged to be acceptable. Are these two positions compatible? It is argued that the normative differentiation cannot be justified by the fact that the assistance in active suicide is itself active, whereas assistance in VSED is merely passive. Even in "letting die" a patient from hastening death by refusing nutrition and hydration there is an active element in the doctor's/the palliative care team's assurance that they will provide palliative support in case of need. Nor can the difference in evaluation be justified by relevant differences in the causal situation. Enabling a patient to perform VSED and assisting a patient's active suicide under the same circumstances are, as far as causal relevance is concerned, on a par. This holds, at least, on a condition view of causality in the tradition of John Stuart Mill. Finally, the paper discusses whether there are other morally relevant dimensions by which actively and passively supporting a patient suicide under the relevant circumstances differ, again with a negative result.

Du spatial au causal : réflexions sur la conceptualisation de la causalité en français et en serbe

The starting point of this paper was the hypothesis that certain segments of the semantic category of causality may be viewed as a metaphor of spatial relations where metaphor is regarded as a cognitive process. In that sense, the paper analyses the prepositional structures introduced by prepositions dans , de , devant, and sous in French, that is, their counterparts in Serbian, prepositions u , od , pred, and pod . The analysis is based on the localistic hypothesis according to which expressions formalising abstract semantic categories are derived from the units of language whose primary function is denoting spatial relations. The paper determined that, semantic localisation may be perceived in cases in which the aforementioned prepositional structures were used to express causal relations, where the consequential situation is the figure, and the causal situation is the ground. In other words, in all the analysed syntactic models, the conceptualisation of spatial relations was transferred to the causality as a more abstract semantic category.

Reconceptualising Exposure and Some Implications for Cognitive-Behavioural and Psychodynamic Practice

AbstractThe concept of exposure is ubiquitous in the research and practice of clinical psychology, most notably in cognitive-behavioural models. Yet there remains confusion and ambiguity around how exposure in ‘exposure therapy’ is characterised. Current definitions are found to be inadequate, as each identifies certain features of the exposure process but omits others. As such, an elaborated model of exposure is presented, referred to here as there-exposure-extinction learning process. This process involves a complex causal situation consisting of clinical features (the cause/causes,C), acting upon a person (the field,F), to bring about re-exposure to anxiety-provoking stimuli and then extinction learning, leading, over time, to therapeutic change (the effect/effects,E). Importantly, re-exposure and extinction learning are two processes distinct from the therapeutic procedures (i.e., techniques and methods) used to bring them about. Furthermore, these processes are not inherently tied to a particular model of therapy or clinical intervention. They are, therefore,logically independent ofthe procedures used to facilitate them. Considering this reconceptualisation, we propose that working in the transference, a cornerstone of psychodynamic psychotherapy, can be understood as a complementary and effective method of facilitating the re-exposure-extinction learning process. We argue that this is achieved through enabling a person to repeatedly re-evaluate their fearful expectations as they manifest in the unfolding dynamics of the therapeutic relationship. Finally, some clinical implications indicated by this elaborated model are explored.

ДИСКУРСИВНЫЙ АНАЛИЗ ПРИЧИННОЙ СИТУАЦИИ (НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА)

The article analyses cause-and-effect relationship in the structure of the discourse matrix. The material of the study is the English statements about a causal situation presented in different types of discourse. Scientific novelty of the work is in the fact that the English-language discourse is studied for the first time by the example of a causal situation analysis. It is concluded that the internal way of discourse generation is a complex dynamic composition. Each semantic coordinate of any discourse can be included separately in other types of discourse and be combined with other semantic coordinates.

Национально-культурные особенности репрезентации каузальной семантики фразеологическими средствами русского языка

The article is devoted to description of a number of phraseological units with the causal semantics. Units of the following semantic groups are analyzed: “To Make. To Force,” “To Subdue,” “To Harass. To Exploit.” Causation is understood widely with inclusion in this concept of causal, concessive and target relations. The specified semantics is verbalized through idioms that describe a particular causal situation. This situation implies the presence of causator (active participant), causable person or object (passive participants). Central component of the studied phraseological units is a causative verb in the infinitive form. Linguistic and cultural analysis allows the author to reveal national and cultural peculiarities of the representation of the causal semantics on the level of phraseology. It is shown that influence of causator on face being caused in the Russian mentality is negatively assessed in most cases and correlates with physical impact on him, limiting his actions. The main images of phraseology of specified semantics are described. In a phraseological unit such components as head , mind , intelligence , soul ( heart ), symbolizing the organs that are affected, are frequent. The structure of the semantic groups with semantic isolation of the series is presented. Synonymic and antonymic relations within these associations are described. Polysemy links at phraseology level are characterized.

배드민턴 국가대표 선수의 시합 전 불안 극복과정에 관한 근거이론적 접근

The purpose of this research was to understand the process of overcoming the anxiety of the national badminton players before games employing the Grounded Theory approach as well as based on the results from the study could help improve the competitiveness and psychological skills of future coaches and players of the Badminton. A total of 14 national badminton players which used the purposive sampling method, including 6 singles players and 8 doubles players from the Badminton Association based on the 2014 and 2015, were selected as the study participants. Data collection methods were in-depth interviews and non-participant observation. The collected data were derived from the grounded theory analysis suggested by Strauss & Corbin (1990, 1998) and tried to construct a coding paradigm to identify the relationships and processes between concepts. As a result of classifying the concept of overcoming the anxiety before games of national badminton players, 126 concepts, 20 subcategories, and 8 superior categories were derived. The causal situation of the grounded theory paradigm appeared to be the game preparation, participation and the perception of anxiety. The players said that the stages of preparing and participating in games played a direct role in the formation of anxiety before the game. The players felt anxiety and perceived according to the game situation. The efforts of all these processes had positively influenced the overcoming players

Cognitive Approach to the Study of Causal Relations

The article attempts to identify frame model of causality in language consciousness of an individual on the example of the German language. Cognitive approach to the study of causality category in German will highlight its mental nature in language consciousness. Process of the propositionally develops the causal and consequent chain of the occurred events and explains the cognitive mechanisms of generation of a frame causal situation. The causal relations are created in language consciousness of native speakers in the form of frames irrespective of language structure. Ways of formation of the superficial syntactic frame, superficial semantic frame and thematic frame of causal statements are considered. The superficial syntactic frame and superficial semantic frame are basic components of thematic frame's slot.

댄스스포츠 참여자의 참여과정 및 의미에 관한 근거이론적 분석

The purpose of this study was to analysis the characteristics on participation process and meaning of Dancesports participants. The participants could dance both Latin and Modern with more than three years of participation experience. The data analysis was based on open coding, axial coding and selective coding from the grounded theory of Strauss & Corbin(1998). The results of the analysis were as follows; It was found that causal situation have a longing for Dancesports and a means of living, contextual situation indicated perception of potential ability, media, and leisure chance, intervene condition given improvement of interpersonal relationships, bilateral strategies betterment of lesson place and health promotion and others. As results, the participants were able to find out their positive and negative aspects of participating Dancesports classes, and showed that Dancesports provided the participants for vitality of life.

A time to remember

A time to remember

Abnormality, cognitive virtues, and knowledge

Causal analyses of one’s knowing that p have recently emphasized the involvement of cognitive virtues in coming to believe that p. John Greco suggests that in order to deal with Gettier-type cases, a virtue analysis of knowing should include a requirement that one’s knowing does not in a certain way involve abnormality. Yet Greco’s emphasis on statistical abnormality either renders his analysis subject to a generality problem or to objections regarding certain Gettier-type cases. When we instead consider abnormality in the sense of a causally differentiating factor in relation to a causal contrast situation, the account remains unclear concerning its application to an interesting non-Gettier-type case concerning chance. The exploration of these shortcomings casts doubt on the epistemological usefulness of the schema, ‘If you know, then there is no abnormality in your being right.’

What causal conditional reasoning tells us about people's understanding of causality

Causal conditional reasoning means reasoning from a conditional statement that refers to causal content. We argue that data from causal conditional reasoning tasks tell us something not only about how people interpret conditionals, but also about how they interpret causal relations. In particular, three basic principles of people's causal understanding emerge from previous studies: the modal principle, the exhaustive principle, and the equivalence principle. Restricted to the four classic conditional inferences—Modus Ponens, Modus Tollens, Denial of the Antecedent, and Affirmation of the Consequent—causal conditional reasoning data are only partially able to support these principles. We present three experiments that use concrete and abstract causal scenarios and combine inference tasks with a new type of task in which people reformulate a given causal situation. The results provide evidence for the proposed representational principles. Implications for theories of the naïve understanding of causality are discussed.

Interactions Between Viewpoint Aspect and Situation Aspect: A Case Study of Alternating Intransitive Constructions in Thai

This paper aims at analyzing an internal temporal constituency of situations denoted by alternating intransitive constructions (AIC) in Thai in order to subclassify them, and investigating interactions between two viewpoint-aspect markers, namely kamlaƞ and jùu, and each subtype of AICs. According to the scope of a profile on the causal chain, the AICs in Thai are arranged into two main groups, i.e., the AICs denoting a simplex causal situation and the AICs denoting a complex causal situation. In each group, they are further subclassified according to the situation aspect of the denoted situations. In analyzing the interactions between viewpoint aspect and situation aspect, I show that kamlaƞ and jùu both function as imperfective viewpoint-aspect markers because they interact with situation aspect at the phase of the situation without any reference to the boundaries. However, they are distinguished in terms of the semantics of the forms themselves and the semantics of the phase they profile. On the one hand, kamlaƞ functions as a dynamic imperfective viewpoint-aspect marker in that it profiles the dynamic phase of the situations and construes them as on-going processes. On the other hand, jùu functions as a stative imperfective aspect marker. Unlike kamlaƞ , jùu can profile either a static or a dynamic phase. If jùu co-occurs with a static situation, the situation will be construed as a persistent state. If jùu co-occurs with a dynamic one, it refers to the progressive situation, which is viewed as stative. Since the grammatical aspect marker jùu is grammaticalized from the lexical verb meaning ‘to exist,’ there is a remnant of that meaning when jùu functions as a grammatical aspect marker. Consequently, the grammaticalized viewpoint-aspect marker jùu conveys the meaning that there exists a static or dynamic situation on the time line at the reference time or the speech-act time.

GEOGRAPHIES, SPATIAL CONCEPTS AND MEDIATING IMAGINATIONS: ON JUSTIFICATION OF TRANSLATION IN EX-CENTRIC HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

In this paper I examine the consequences of the idea that geography is situated in social contexts. My aim is to determine the rational conditions of using conceptual resources of the central Anglophone tradition in the geographical studies of peripheral societal worlds. The problem of conceptual translation derives from three different but related assumptions: (1) geographies are social theories within other social practices, (2) geographical tradition is plural and its theories are underdetermined by the world events and objects, (3) geography matters to the practices of geographical conceptualisations. Following Donald Davidson's theory of truth I argue that geographical translation is justified in case the different geographical communities in the same causal circumstances can openly share the belief in the truth of conceptual sentences concerning their spatial properties. Due to the lack of common external social events and objects in the communication between different societies, the paper suggests to imagine a list of simple spatial abstractions as a tool for creating common causal situation for central and peripheral geographical communities.

Causal connectives or causal prepositions? Discursive constraints

In this article, we draw a comparison between causal prepositions and causal connectives and present them as alternative realizations of the underlying causal situation. It is our aim to investigate under which constraints a language user tends to select either of both causal alternatives. It appeared from a quantitative corpus analysis that these constraints are primarily pragmatic in nature, since they have to do in the first place with the discourse domain and with the management of given/new information. This is also confirmed by an analysis of the grammatical and lexical constraints on causal prepositions and connectives.

Analysis of human errors in industrial incidents and accidents for improvement of work safety

Methods for the analysis of work accidents are discussed, and a description is given of the use of a causal situation analysis in terms of a “variation tree” in order to explain the course of events of the individual cases and to identify possible improvements. The difficulties in identifying “causes” of accidents are discussed, and it is proposed to analyse accident reports with the specific aim of identifying the potential for future improvements rather than causes of past events. In contrast to traditional statistical analysis of work accident data, which typically give very general recommendations, the method proposed identifies very explicit countermeasures. Improvements require a change in human decisions during equipment design, work planning, or the execution itself. The use of a model of human behaviour drawing a distinction between automated skill-based behaviour, rule-based “know-how” and knowledge-based analysis is proposed for identification of the human decisions which are most sensitive to improvements.

Singular Causal Statements

In 'Causal Relations Davidson claims that singular causal statements express an extensional relation between particular events rather than an intensional relation between facts. One consequence Davidson draws is a reassessment of the traditional problem of selecting 'the' cause from various conditions of a given effect. Gerald Vision2 has recently challenged Davidson's account. While this challenge seems in the end to fail, it does bring out interesting consequences of that account. The traditional problem might be loosely described in the following way. Singular causal statements, it is claimed, nominate as 'the cause', of a certain effect what we might call 'the significant partial cause', which is only one aspect of the causal situation in which many causal aspects are involved in the production of the effect in question. The striking of the match, the dryness of the match, the presence of oxygen are all involved in the production of the flame, yet we say the striking caused the lighting of the match. It is generally agreed that determining what is causally involved in bringing about an effect (the total cause) is a purely scientific issue, whereas selecting the cause (the significant partial cause) is not. Rather the latter depends on such practical considerations as which aspect we can most readily control or such contextual considerations as how this case differs from cases where the effect is not evident (i.e. from matches that are not in flames). Davidson is at pains to show that this picture of selecting one partial cause from amongst a set of such events that constitute a total cause is at least sometimes incorrect. On the other hand, he pays little attention to the fact that the picture fits some situations well enough even on his own event-analysis. To bring this out we need to distinguish two kinds of case.