Abstract
Community psychologists have a long history of interest in understanding social systems and how to bring about enduring positive change in these systems. However, the methods that community psychologists use to anticipate and evaluate the changes that result from system change efforts are less well developed. In the current paper, we introduce readers to system dynamics modeling, an action research approach to studying complex systems and the consequences of system change. We illustrate this approach by describing a system dynamics model of educational reform. We provide readers with an introduction to system dynamics modeling, as well as describe the strengths and limitations of the approach for application to community psychology.
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Notes
These patterns may also be used as reference modes. Reference modes are typical patterns of behavior that the system has been observed to produce.
One must be careful if the scales used are interval, because the time series patterns of Likert-type scales may differ from patterns generated by using a ratio scale technique. This problem has been addressed by Levine and Fitzgerald (1992).
In a recent project on health care, for example, we used meta-analytic data to quantify the average effectiveness of a particular type of program and the range of effectiveness.
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Hirsch, G.B., Levine, R. & Miller, R.L. Using system dynamics modeling to understand the impact of social change initiatives. Am J Community Psychol 39, 239–253 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-007-9114-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-007-9114-3