This response considers together simultaneously occurring discussions about causal inference in social work and allied health and social science disciplines. It places emphasis on scholarship that integrates the potential outcomes model with directed acyclic graphing techniques to extract core steps in causal inference. Although this scholarship is focused on bolstering causal inference from observational data, it is argued that it also offers processes to facilitate what Marsh terms as slow causal thinking.
AsendorpfJ. B. (2012). Bias due to controlling a collider. A potentially important issue for personality research. European Journal of Personality, 26, 397–398.
2.
BrekkeJ. S. (2012). Shaping a science of social work. Research on Social Work Practice, 22, 455–464.
3.
DuncanG. J. (2008a). When to promote, and when to avoid, a population perspective. Demography, 45, 763–784.
4.
DuncanG. J. (2008b). Unexpected pathways. Journal of Social Issues, 64, 213–218.
5.
DuncanG. J.MagnusonK.LudwigJ. (2004). The endogeneity problem in developmental studies. Research in Human Development, 1, 59–80.
6.
FosterE. M. (2010). Causal inference and developmental psychology. Developmental Psychology, 46, 1454–1480.
7.
FosterE. M.McCombs-ThorntonK. (2013). Child welfare and the challenge of causal inference. Children and Youth Services Review, 35, 1130–1142.
8.
FraserM. W. (2004). Intervention research in social work: Recent advances and continuing challenges. Research on Social Work Practice, 14, 210–222.
9.
GambrillE. (2010). Evidence-informed practice: Antidote to propaganda in the helping professions?Research on Social Work Practice, 20, 302–320.
10.
GuoS.FraserW. M. (2009). Propensity score analysis: Statistical methods and applications. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
11.
JacksonJ. J.SpainS. M. (2012). Causing a shift in causal thinking. European Journal of Personality, 26, 397–398.
12.
MarshJ. C. (2014). Thinking fast and slow about causality: A response to Palinkas. Research on Social Work Practice, 24, 548–551.
13.
MoffittR. (2005). Remarks on the analysis of causal relationships in population research. Demography, 42, 91–108.
14.
MorganS. L.WinshipC. (2007). Counterfactuals and causal inference: Methods and principles for social research. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
15.
MorganS. L.WinshipC. (2011). Bringing context and variability back into causal analysis. In KincaidH. (Ed.), Oxford handbook of the philosophy of the social sciences (pp. 319–354). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
16.
PalinkasL. (2014). Causality and causal inference in social work: Quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Research on Social Work Practice, 24, 540–547.
17.
PearlJ. (2000). Causality: Models, reasoning, and inference. London, England: Cambridge University Press.
18.
RoeB. E.JustD. R. (2009). Internal and external validity in economics research: Tradeoffs between experiments, field experiments, natural experiments and field data. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 91, 1382–1388.
19.
RothmanK.J. (1976). Causes. American Journal of Epidemiology, 104, 587–592.
20.
RosenA.ProctorE. K.StaudtM. M. (1999). Social work research and the quest for effective practice. Social Work Research, 23, 4–14.
21.
RubinD. B. (2011). Rubin causal model. In LovricM. (Ed.), International encyclopedia of statistical science (pp. 1263–1265). Berlin, Germany: Springer.
22.
ShadishW. R. (2010a). Campbell and Rubin: A primer and comparison of their approaches to causal inference in field settings. Psychological Methods, 15, 3–17.
23.
ShadishW. R. (2010b). Introduction: The perils of science in the world of policy and practice. Health Psychology, 29, 105–106.
24.
ShadishW. R. (2011). Randomized controlled studies and alternative designs in outcome studies: Challenges and opportunities. Research on Social Work Practice, 21, 636–643.
25.
StoneS. I.RoseR. A. (2011). Social work research and the endogeneity bias. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 2, 54–75.
26.
SueS.ZaneN.HallG. C. N.BergerL. K. (2009). The case for cultural competency in psychotherapeutic interventions. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 525–548.
27.
WestS. G.ThoemmesF. (2010). Campbell’s and Rubin’s perspectives on causal inference. Psychological Methods, 15, 18–37.
28.
WestS. G.DuanN.PequegnatW.GaistP.Des JarlaisD.HoltgraveD.…MullenP. D. (2008). Alternatives to the randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Public Health, 98, 1359–1366.
