The Practice of Social Research

Chapter Fifteen.  The Elaboration Model


The Elaboration Paradigm

    Replication
    Explanation
    Interpretation
    Specification
    Refinements to the Paradigm


The crux of the elaboration model is what happens to the relationship between two variables, when a third variable is held constant as a control.  This examination focuses on the "partial relationships" found in each of the subsets created by the control variable: the relationship between age and religiosity among men (one partial) and the same relationship among women (another partial), for example.   Lazarsfeld named each of the possible outcomes.

Replication: the original relationship stays the same in each of the partial relationships.  This supports the generalizability of the original relationship.

Explanation: the original relationship disappears in each of the partials, when an antecedent (earlier in time) control variable is introduced.  This suggests the original relationship was spurious or ingenuine, an artifact of the relationship the control variable has with each of the other two.

Interpretation: the original relationship disappears in each of the partials, when an intervening (between the other two variables in time) control variable is introduced.  This suggests the original relationship was a genuine one, but we now know the mechanism or vehicle through which it occurs.

Specification: the original relationship is maintained in one of the partials but not in the other.  In contrast to showing the generalizability of the relationship, this outcome specifies the conditions under which it occurs: only among men, for example, but not among women.

Other researchers have suggested refinements and extensions to the elaboration model.  In the case of suppression, for example, the relationship between two variables might be hidden by a third variable, only to be revealed when the third variable is controlled.  In the more extreme case, a distorter variable may actually reverse the genuine relationship between two variables.