cause and effect

Knowledge

2022

We explain what the cause and effect relationship is, what linguistic connectors indicate it and how to make an Ishikawa diagram.

Many different chemical reactions can have the effect of fire.

What is the cause and effect relationship?

The relationship between cause and effect refers to the concept of causality. The notions of cause and effect are among the most fundamental in our way of thinking, and they help us to understand the reality that surrounds us.

However, there is not really a single concept of "cause" or "effect", beyond the fact that the cause is that which produces the effect, and logically the effect will be that which depends on the cause to exist or occur.

However, there are causal (or cause-effect) relationships in the nature, and we usually recognize them because the cause precedes in the weather to the effect. However, the relationship between the two is not necessarily obvious, or simple, and the same effect can have numerous causes, or the same cause numerous effects.

Since ancient times, the notion of causality has caught our attention. The philosopher Aristotle, from the Classic Greece, he already wondered about it in his book of the Analytical seconds (Part of Organon), where he distinguished four types of causes:

  • Material cause
  • Formal cause
  • Efficient cause
  • Final cause

The very concept of causality suffered at the hands of much later philosophers, such as David Hume in the eighteenth century. However, it was an indispensable part of the reasoning scientist, under the name of Concept of causality: absolutely everything in nature has a cause and an effect, even when one of the two (especially the causes) are not easily discernible.

Examples of cause and effect

The cause of lightning is a difference in electrical potential between the atmosphere and the ground.

Virtually everything is a possible example of cause and effect in the world. However, it becomes more evident in cases such as the following:

  • A lightning bolt (effect) occurs due to an electrical potential difference between the atmosphere and the I usually (cause).
  • The death Drowning (effect) is caused by the inability of the lungs to extract oxygen from the Water (cause).
  • Fire (effect) can occur in a variety of situations involving chemical reactions from combustion (Causes).
  • Unwanted pregnancy (effect) is a consequence of unprotected intercourse (cause).

Cause and effect connectors

Already at the linguistic level, the cause-effect relationship occurs as a logical order within the text. That is, we can establish it by using certain connecting particles (links) that indicate to the reader that something is the effect of something else. These particles are known as causal links and are:

Cause Effect
because therefore
well Thus
since therefore
as of luck What
due so that
in view of so that
on the assumption that because
for what for

Recognize cause and effect in a text

Having seen the above, it is not difficult to find cause-effect relationships in a text, since it is enough to look for the presence of the indicator links. For example, in the following text:

«The Meiji Bakumatsu no Dōran restoration (end of the shōgun regime) was the political succession that brought the Tokugawa Shogunate to an end, so that the can from government of Japan to the emperor, because he had yielded to the figure of the shogun. This regimen was very similar tofeudalism European: the emperor did not have the royal power but depended on the most important daimyō (feudal lord or landowner of important families). This was titled shōgun, which is the highest rank a daimyō could attain. That is why the political regime was called the shogunate. "

Ishikawa cause-effect diagram

The cause-effect diagram allows the causes to be grouped into a few categories.

The diagrams cause-effect diagrams, also called Ishikawa diagrams or fishtail diagrams, are simple graphic representations of the set of cause-effect relationships that intervene in the same process, from their variables.

It is a tool used in the General systems theory, which represents as income (inputs) and outputs (outputs) the causes and effects that intervene on the process, as well as the dynamics of feedback (feedback) that they produce and that are necessary for the control of system.

Its name comes from its creator, Kaoru Ishikawa, who deduced that all the causes of the problems of a business can be summarized into four categories: people, materials, machinery and processes or methods, and proceeded to graph them in a way that allowed their more complete and simple understanding.

How to make an Ishikawa diagram?

To make an Ishikawa diagram, simply follow these steps:

  • The blank template is copied.
  • It is written on the fish's head (that is, on the right side of the diagram) the trouble that you want to analyze.
  • The causal categories of the problem are identified, either the four proposed by Ishikawa, or new ones.
  • The different specific causes of the problem that obey each specific category are written in each category. For example, if one of the causes of the problem is the limited availability of trained personnel, this is noted under “people”.
  • The different causes are organized between causes and sub-causes, that is, they are ranked in order to know which ones generate which others. So until the diagram is completed.
  • Once the diagram is complete, the causes that are under our control and those that are not are chosen. The first ones will be the only ones that we can solve, taking into account their position in the diagram so as not to generate new problems.
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