Agent-Based Modeling: A New Approach for Theory Building in Social Psychology Export

@article{SmithConrey, abstract = {Most social and psychological phenomena occur not as the result of isolated decisions by individuals but rather as the result of repeated interactions between multiple individuals over time. Yet the theory-building and modeling techniques most commonly used in social psychology are less than ideal for understanding such dynamic and interactive processes. This article describes an alternative approach to theory building, agent-based modeling (ABM), which involves simulation of large numbers of autonomous agents that interact with each other and with a simulated environment and the observation of emergent patterns from their interactions. The authors believe that the ABM approach is better able than prevailing approaches in the field, variable-based modeling (VBM) techniques such as causal modeling, to capture types of complex, dynamic, interactive processes so important in the social world. The article elaborates several important contrasts between ABM and VBM and offers specific recommendations for learning more and applying the ABM approach. 10.1177/1088868306294789}, author = {Smith, Eliot R. and Conrey, Frederica R.}, citeulike-article-id = {3439363}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1088868306294789}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://psr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/1/87}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18453457}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=18453457}, day = {1}, doi = {10.1177/1088868306294789}, journal = {Pers Soc Psychol Rev}, keywords = {agent-based\_modelling}, month = {February}, number = {1}, pages = {87--104}, posted-at = {2009-06-23 07:01:33}, priority = {2}, title = {Agent-Based Modeling: A New Approach for Theory Building in Social Psychology}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1088868306294789}, volume = {11}, year = {2007} }

TY - JOUR ID - SmithConrey L3 - citeulike-article-id:3439363 N2 - Most social and psychological phenomena occur not as the result of isolated decisions by individuals but rather as the result of repeated interactions between multiple individuals over time. Yet the theory-building and modeling techniques most commonly used in social psychology are less than ideal for understanding such dynamic and interactive processes. This article describes an alternative approach to theory building, agent-based modeling (ABM), which involves simulation of large numbers of autonomous agents that interact with each other and with a simulated environment and the observation of emergent patterns from their interactions. The authors believe that the ABM approach is better able than prevailing approaches in the field, variable-based modeling (VBM) techniques such as causal modeling, to capture types of complex, dynamic, interactive processes so important in the social world. The article elaborates several important contrasts between ABM and VBM and offers specific recommendations for learning more and applying the ABM approach. 10.1177/1088868306294789 IS - 1 JF - Pers Soc Psychol Rev EP - 104 TI - Agent-Based Modeling: A New Approach for Theory Building in Social Psychology VL - 11 SP - 87 KW - agent-based_modelling AU - Smith, Eliot AU - Conrey, Frederica PY - 2007/02/01/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1088868306294789 ER -