Cause and Effect Reasoning

Verbal reasoning has many sections that prove to be beneficial in different examinations. One interesting section of verbal reasoning is cause and effect. Most people do not even prepare for it before any exam as it is very natural. In this type of reasoning, two statements are provided, from which the cause and effect need to be identified if there are any. There are certain principles of cause and effect which are known as causality. It can be implemented in various competitive exams. Basically, causality defines the cause behind everything that happens around the world. This principle states that causes bring effects with them.

Discussion

Description of Statement and Course of Action reasoning

Statement and course of action reasoning is a type of logical reasoning. In this type of reasoning, a situation is provided as a statement and within the context of that situation, some expected course of actions are also given. In exams, candidates have to find out which course of action among those can be followed based on the given situation.

The course of action is determined true if it is able to solve or minimize the problem in the statement. Hence, it can be considered a practical solution. In different government examinations, a huge part consists of statements and course of action reasoning questions. This makes it one of the most important sections of analytical reasoning.

Sometimes it may happen that a course of action that is able to solve a problem, may not be advisable in real life. In case it happens, the course of action is considered rejected. On the other hand, when the statement happens to be a well-established fact, it is acknowledged as a fact globally. Statement and course of action reasoning are used to determine the main cause behind any problem and then provide a suitable course of action according to that.

What is Cause and Effect Reasoning?

The trickiest section of verbal reasoning is cause and effect reasoning. Although the nature of the questions in this section is very easy, their design of them is tricky. Therefore, candidates often face difficulties while solving the questions of the cause and effect reasoning. The main principle of causality states that effects are derived from causes. Therefore, it can also be said that the cause needs to happen before the effect. When two events are related to each other and when one of them happens, the other one also gets affected, then causes can be identified from the effects. It is also possible that an event can have more than one cause. The search for the reason behind any occurrence drives cause and effect reasoning. The main objective of this reasoning is to assert or deny the fact that one thing is caused by another.

Role of Cause and Effect in Logical Reasoning

Cause and effect are one of the most commonly used testing areas in a competitive exam. It can appear in any part of the verbal reasoning, logical reasoning, or aptitude sections. The main reason behind testing the cause and effect reasoning is to analyze the relationship between two given situations or statements. This relationship denotes whether the situations are causally related to each other or not.

Candidates appearing in the exam need to find out if one of the statements is a direct cause of the other or it is the direct effect of the other. However, there is more than one type of cause in logical reasoning. The first one is the immediate cause that happens immediately before the effect. Next is the most important reason behind any effect called the principal cause. The third one is the common cause which defines a third unmentioned event that can be the cause of two given effects in two statements. Furthermore, cause and effect reasoning depends on different situations also.

Types of Questions in Cause and Effect Reasoning

The analysis of cause and effect reasoning can provide five outcomes. The first one is, that it might be possible that the fact of the first statement is the effect of the fact mentioned in the second one. Hence the second statement can be defined as the cause and the first one as the effect of that.

In the second probability, the fact of the first statement might be the cause of the effect mentioned in the second statement.

It might also be possible that both the statements do not have any specific cause but have effects on some other factors. This is the third probability. The fourth one in this probability list states that both the facts can be independent and have different causes that are independent in nature. The last probability is that the effects of both the given facts may be triggered by an unmentioned third event that can be termed as the common cause of both of them.

Conclusion

The questions of cause and effect reasoning are generally designed to judge the ability of a candidate by analyzing two given statements and relating them to each other from the cause and effect perspective. Cause and effect reasoning, being an integral part of verbal reasoning, play a significant part in prestigious government examinations. Cause and effect relationship of any two events depends on the causality. This causality generally occurs when one event influences another to happen. However, the cause will always occur before the effect.