causal modelling A causal model is an abstract quantitative representation of real-world dynamics. Hence, a causal model attempts to describe the causal and other relationships, among a set of variables. The best-known form of causal modelling is path analysis, which was originally developed in genetics, but was adopted as a technique in the 1960s by American sociologists such as Otis Dudley Duncan. Most causal modelling is associated with survey research (see the classic text by H. M. Blalock , Causal Inferences in Nonexperimental Research, 1964