Description
1. Watch this video about how to draw and understand causal diagrams. Note that this video is about climate change, but the same ideas apply to the social sciences.
2. Watch this video about how to read an article, and think about the potential causal structures that 1) the scientists writing the article are trying to convey, and 2) how to be critical and think about alternative causal structure explanations.
3. Finally, watch this video about common mistakes in drawing causal structures.
4. Draw a causal diagram of your own life
-Do not spend long on this homework – about 5-10 minutes. The goal of this homework is to:
-get practice thinking about causal diagrams and how they are relevant to your life
-get practice drawing diagrams using some computer software
Open up MS Powerpoint, Google Slides, Keynote (for a Mac), or another program with diagramming tools that allow you to draw a causal structure. (Note, many programs can allow you to draw diagrams. Even MS Word has this feature.)
Draw a causal diagram for something relevant to your life. Here are some topics you could use:
o the causes and effects of some behavior of a pet
o the causes and effects of your mood
o the causes and effects of your exercise routine if you have one
o the causes and effects of an interpersonal relationship
o the causes and effects of something to do with politics
o the causes and effects of something to do with the pandemic. Really, it could be anything interesting to you
Some other criteria:
You must draw at least 4 nodes
Include a moderation
Label your pathways with a + or – to show whether the causal relationship is positive or negative
Once you are done save and upload your diagram.
