Explain why causes that are both necessary and sufficient are difficult to identify in the social sciences.
Necessary and sufficient causes prove to be hard to identify in the field of social science. This is because many theories try to identify one cause. At times, the cause may be identified by necessary and sufficient as one thing. The field of social sciences proves to be wide, and it ends up basing facts on its theoretical nature. Social science is characterized by many features that result in other outcomes, but not every feature results in the same cause. Thus, findings are considered to be different based on the factor that has caused it (Maxfield & Babbie, 2010). A good example is when individuals are born in a family with a history of asthmatic, it does not mean that one is asthmatic. This makes social studies to be a field covering many aspects whose outcomes are hard to identify.
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In cases where individuals use logical theory, necessary and sufficient causes prove to be easy to identify. However, they prove to be difficult to identify in social studies because they use illogical theory. Social science tends to use terms that are precise and specific (Ilagan & Patungan, 2017). Therefore, the use of necessary and sufficient causes may not fit in this field as they offer information that is not particular. There is a significant difference between necessary and sufficient cause. A necessary cause requires a condition to be present for any action to take place. In contrast, sufficient cause requires a little condition for any action to occur. This means that an action will take place regardless of the condition. Therefore, social studies use precise conditions, and that is why it will be difficult to identify necessary and sufficient in this field.
References
Ilagan, M., & Patungan, W. (2017). Is intelligence necessary but not sufficient for creativity? Evaluating the Necessary Condition Analysis
Maxfield, M. G., & Babbie, E. R. (2010). General Issues in Research Design. In Research Methods for Criminal Justice and Criminology (pp. 85-87).