Criteria | Application |
---|---|
Hill’s aspects of association | |
Strength | Social Capital (social networks) was identified by QUAL and QUANT as associated with depression at the individual and ecological levels |
Consistency | Social Capital (social networks) and social support has been previously identified as associated with maternal depression |
Specificity | Postnatal depression is strongly linked to lack of support |
Temporality | No temporality demonstrated in this study |
Biological gradient | There was a gradient at the individual and ecological level |
Plausibility | The association between social networks with stress is plausible |
Coherence | The association is coherent with what is know |
Experimental evidence | There is experimental evidence that home visiting and other support reduced maternal depression |
Analogy | There is an analogy between of social network support and the benefits of emotional and practical support all reducing stress and depression |
Thagard’s Principles | |
Symmetry | There is symmetry between social capital reducing stress and social isolation causing stress |
Explanation | The social capital propositions a) coheres with evidence on depression, b) coheres with other propositions and c) is not a single proposition |
Analogy | There is an analogy between of social network support and the benefits of emotional and practical support all reducing stress and depression |
Data priority | The proposition describes the data observations |
Contradiction | There are no contradictory proposals |
Competition | No competitive explanation identified where p and q were not explanatorily connected |
Acceptance | The social capital propositions are coherent with the overall system of propositions |
Thagard’s Criteria | |
Consilience | Social capital propositions explain a limited range of known facts |
Simplicity | Social capital propositions are not sufficient to explain depression. Not the most simple explanation |
Analogy | There is an analogy between of social network support and the benefits of emotional and practical support all reducing stress and depression |