Subject: Psychology in (or not in) systems modeling

Posted by Tim Joy on 12/7/2009
In Reply To:Psychology in (or not in) systems modeling Posted by Michael Skelly on 12/6/2009

Message:

If there is any group in the human race that has an inside track on “relative pressure,” it’s teenagers in American high schools.

To be sure, quantifying a desire, say, to strike out based on some algorithm of suppressed grief and a recent stressor would be difficult to calculate to a decimal place. And yet, asking students to consider these things is quite helpful to them: one actually can think through these issues with some rationality. And to high school students, these non-physical stocks are more pressing in their lives than many physical stocks around them, and so we SHOULD be using these elements as appropriately and expertly as we can.

So, how do we do this? I’ll try. We might start out with a neutral, non-physical stock: distaste for English. What causes that stock to increase? What causes that stock to decrease? Both lists would likely be extensive, but we need only a few to drive home the point that it’s not a linear experience. BUT, here’s the thing . . . it stands to reason that once the stock reaches a certain point, a threshold, that the student’s behaviors begin to change? Mightn’t the student cease doing homework? Might there be some acting out in class? That might cause the teacher to respond? That would likely increase the stock value? And so the model construction goes builds as the discussion unfolds.

Once students have an understanding that these stocks are REAL and quite prominent in all human systems, then simple models about gaps, or dimensionless multipliers, or behavior over time graphs are very helpful to students.

An aside . . . the primary stock in Lord of the Flies is not the number of huts on the beach. It’s fear. Once fear crashes through thresholds, the boys act: first they dance, then they form tribes, then they threaten and punish; ultimately, they kill. Asking students to discern at what level of fear they began to act would be a very fruitful discussion indeed.

Tim Joy
De La Salle North
Catholic High School

Follow Ups:

Psychology in (or not in) systems modeling - Alex Leus 12/8/2009