Criteria | Assessment |
---|---|
Hill’s aspects of association | |
Strength | Expectation and lack of support both have strong associations with depression |
Consistency | The role of stress as a cause of depression has been found in different situations. The role of expectations and lack of support has also been found |
Specificity | No specificity identified |
Temporality | No temporality demonstrated in this study |
Biological gradient | Higher the causes of stress the higher the observed depression |
Plausibility | The association between stress and depression is biologically plausible |
Coherence | The association is coherent with what is know |
Experimental evidence | Interventions that provide support have been demonstrated to reduce depression |
Analogy | There is an analogy between the effect of loss of expectation and loss of support. Both result in a similar effect. |
Thagard’s Principles | |
Symmetry | There is symmetry between stress causing depression and support preventing depression |
Explanation | The stress proposition a) coheres with evidence on depression, b) evidence on role of support, isolation, loss of control, and c) is single proposition. |
Analogy | Stress causing depression is coherent with stress causing anxiety and physiological changes to H-P axis |
Data priority | Proposition describes observation re isolation, expectations, support. |
Contradiction | There are no contradictory proposals |
Competition | No competitive explanation identified where p and q were not explanatorily connected |
Acceptance | The stress proposition is coherent with the overall system of propositions |
Thagard’s Criteria | |
Consilience | The central role of stress as an explanation for depression explains the largest range of facts |
Simplicity | Stress as a necessary cause of depression is a simple explanation |
Analogy | Â |