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SPSP Summer Psychology Forum: Modeling and Analyzing the Dynamics of Motivation, Affect, and Social Interaction /
Introduction to Agent-Based Modeling
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Description: In this workshop, I will introduce participants to computer simulations of agent-based models. I will concentrate on models of social influence, one of the most pervasive social processes. I will start with very simple models following the principles of dynamical minimalism and progress toward more complex models ending with psychologically realistic Regulatory Theory of Social Influence.(RTSI) During the workshop I will illustrate how to translate a psychological theory into a computer simulation model and demonstrate how to write fragments of the code that are critical for implementing a theory. We will play with the simulation program exploring how changing the rules of the simulations affects the simulation results. I will discuss the approach of dynamical minimalism as a research strategy that investigates emergence of complex group level properties. After exploring the simple model, we will progressively introduce more complex rules into the model, making it more psychologically realistic. We will observe similarities and differences between simple and complex models of social influence and different strategies of simulating social processes. We will modify the rules of the simulation and consider how to operationalize different rules of social psychology in terms of the model. The implementation of RTSI will be demonstrated and compared to the minimalist model. On the basis of the theory we will discuss how to introduce notions of trust and coherence into simulation models. We will use empirical data concerning socio-economic transition to consider how to verify empirically predictions of the simulation model. In demonstrating the model, I will discuss basic notions of dynamical models such as order parameters, control parameters, self-organization and emergence, the role of randomness and individual differences and also how models of social processes are different from models of physical processes. We will also discuss the role of computer simulations in social psychology as the third method of developing science, in combination with theory building and empirical research.