Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ugo Merlone
Psychology Department
University of Turin
Ugo Merlone, SAA MBA
An important quote
The sciences do not try to explain, they hardly even try to interpret,
they mainly make models. By a model is meant a mathematical
construct which, with the addition of certain verbal interpretations,
describes observed phenomena. The justification of such a
mathematical construct is solely and precisely that it is expected to
work - that is correctly to describe phenomena from a reasonably
wide area. Furthermore, it must satisfy certain aesthetic criteria -
that is, in relation to how much it describes, it must be rather
simple.
simple accurate
general
02.00 hours research
z general
z accurate
z (difficult)
simple accurate
Examples
z The Psychoanalytical Theory of Neuroses (Fenichel, 1945)
z Organizational Diagnosis (Levinson, 1972)
z Steps to an Ecology of Mind (Bateson, 1972)
general
06.00 hours research
z accurate
z simple
Examples simple accurate
z A Bargaining Theory of Coalition Formation
(Komorita & Chertkoff, 1973)
z Laboratory studies
z Case studies
z general
z simple
Examples
z A Garbage Can Model of Organizational simple accurate
z System
z State of the System
z Discrete System
z Continuous System
z System
Collection of entities e.g., people or machines, that
act and interact together toward the accomplishment
of some logical end. [Schimidt and Taylor (1970)]
In practice what is meant by the system depends
on the objective of a particular study
The collection of the entities that comprise a system
for one study might be only a subset of the overall
system for another.
z State
The collection of variables necessary to
describe a system at a particular time,
relative to the objectives of a study.
z Discrete system
A system for which the state variables
change instantaneously at separated points
of time.
z Continuous system
A system for which the state variables
change continuously with respect to time.
System
System
System
Physical Mathematical
model model
System
Physical Mathematical
model model
Analytical Simulation
solution
Yet the most vast majority of models built for such purposes are
mathematical, representing a system in terms of logical and
quantitative relationships that are manipulated and changed to
see how the model reacts, and thus
how the system would react
if the mathematical model is a valid one.
Ugo Merlone, SAA MBA
Analytical Solution vs Simulation (1)
Choice of software:
if the selected software is not flexible enough
or it is too difficult to use,
then
the simulation project may produce erroneous
results or may not even be completed
simple accurate
simulation
Ugo Merlone, SAA MBA
Common steps
KIDS
simple accurate
KISS
simulation
Ugo Merlone, SAA MBA
MUSEUM
On Exactitude in Science
...In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that
the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map
of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable
Maps no longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of
the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point
for point with it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of the
Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast
Map was Useless, and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they
delivered it up to the Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of
the West, still today, there are Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by
Animals and Beggars; in all the Land there is no other Relic of the
Disciplines of Geography.
Suarez Miranda,Viajes de varones prudentes, Libro IV,Cap. XLV, Lerida, 1658