Subject: Psychology in (or not in) systems modeling

Posted by Jay Forrester on 12/6/2009
In Reply To:Psychology in (or not in) systems modeling Posted by Dan Proctor on 12/6/2009

Message:

From early in system dynamics there has been a recognition that psychological influences are essential to good modeling.
In
Roberts, Edward B. 1964. The Dynamics of Research and Development. New York: Harper and Row.
In Chapter 10 on Quality of the Firm, the following are concepts that are consolidated in the quality of the firm representation in the model:
"The capability of the firm's management and engineers is reflected in their awareness of innovations....." and "The propensity to undertake risks,..." and "The firm's integrity in presenting to the customer its own beliefs about the expected cost and value of the R and D project was cited in Chapter 7 as a potential key determinant of project outcome."

In
Forrester, Jay W. 1973. World Dynamics (2 ed.). Waltham, MA: Pegasus Communications.
there are implied psychological processes in the factors influencing birth rate.

Whether or not system dynamics models represent psychological processes depends on the purpose and scope of the model.

I would indeed be willing to ask employees to rank their boss's level of egotism on a scale of 1 to 10 and I would expect that the answers would be rather similar if the scale had been illustrated by naming some people they know at the level of 2 and some at the level of 8 so that the scale had meaning.