Proposing Necessary but Not Sufficient Conditions Analysis as a Complement of Traditional Effect Size Measures with an Illustrative Example

Ana M. Greco, Georgina Guilera, Laura Maldonado-Murciano, Juana Gómez-Benito and Maite Barrios
Additional contact information
Ana M. Greco: Departament de Psicologia Social i Psicologia Quantitativa, Facultat de Psicologia, Universitat de Barcelona, 08035 Barcelona, Spain
Georgina Guilera: Departament de Psicologia Social i Psicologia Quantitativa, Facultat de Psicologia, Universitat de Barcelona, 08035 Barcelona, Spain
Laura Maldonado-Murciano: Departament de Psicologia Social i Psicologia Quantitativa, Facultat de Psicologia, Universitat de Barcelona, 08035 Barcelona, Spain
Juana Gómez-Benito: Departament de Psicologia Social i Psicologia Quantitativa, Facultat de Psicologia, Universitat de Barcelona, 08035 Barcelona, Spain
Maite Barrios: Departament de Psicologia Social i Psicologia Quantitativa, Facultat de Psicologia, Universitat de Barcelona, 08035 Barcelona, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-14

Abstract: Even though classic effect size measures (e.g., Pearson’s r, Cohen’s d) are widely applied in social sciences, the threshold used to interpret them is somewhat arbitrary. This study proposes necessary condition analysis (NCA) to complement traditional methods. We explain NCA in light of the current limitations of classical techniques, highlighting the advantages in terms of interpretation and translation into practical terms and recognizing its weaknesses. To do so, we provide an example by testing the link between three independent variables with a relevant outcome in a sample of 235 subjects. The traditional Pearson’s coefficient was obtained, and NCA was used to test if any of the predictors were necessary but not sufficient conditions. Our study also obtains outcome and condition inefficiency as well as NCA bottlenecks. Comparison and interpretation of the traditional and NCA results were made considering recommendations. We suggest that NCA can complement correlation analyses by adding valuable and applicable information, such as if a variable is needed to achieve a certain outcome level and to what degree.

Keywords: necessary condition analysis; NCA; effect size; measure; interpretation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9402/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9402/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:15:p:9402-:d:877251

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().