Evolution of Causal Mapping
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The term cognitive maps appeared in a paper written by Edward C. Tolman titled,
“Cognitive Maps in Rats and Men,” in the Psychological Review in 1948. Although he
did not use the term in the sense known in organization sciences, Tolman extolled the
virtues of reason, which were in contrast to the behavioral psychologist’s view which
focused on stimulus response mechanisms for explaining human behavior. The term was
later used by Axelrod to name the methods he and his colleagues employed to represent
the arguments of political elites. The term, “cognitive maps,” however, conveyed the idea
that the maps represented the actual workings of the mind. To avoid the claim that they
were representing thought scholars following Axelrod began to employ the term “causal
mapping.” These scholars claimed that they focused only on causal assertions in a
specific set of texts.
In addition to the evolution of the terminology, several streams of scholarship have
contributed to the initial use of causal mapping as a tool for representing thought. These
streams are varied and often not related to each other. Nonetheless, it is useful to reflect
on this rich heritage, if only to discover opportunities that have not yet been exploited
in the contemporary applications of this tool.
I discuss this evolution in five sections: (1) Early Precursors; (2) Immediate Precursors;
(3) Axelrod’s Seminal Work; (4) Causal Mapping in Organizational Sciences; and (5)
Causal Mapping in IS. This is schematically presented in Figure 1.