A similar approach is crucial case analysis, in which hypotheses deduced from a theory are tested against a case that would appear to be better explained, prima facie, by an alternative, competing theory. To the extent that these causal linkages are specified by the researcher's hypotheses, process tracing increases the number of empirical observations that can be used to test the hypotheses. See King, Keohane, and Verba , Designing Social Inquiry , pp. We understand something by identifying it as a specific part in an organized whole. Thagard makes an analogous distinction among deductive, schematic, and causal modes of explanation.
N are true.
The relationship between X and these conditions is interactive.