What are models?

Post date: Aug 29, 2012 2:20:58 AM

I was thinking about Jesse's comments in class about the need for models in the social sciences. We tried to define the difference between a model and a theory and had a bit of difficulty. I think the difference is mostly in how we use the terms and what the connotations, not in the essential natures of the two -- which is to say they are really one. But model is the better idea but the things it makes you think of are more specific and more generative. To me, a model connotes:

• • A set of starting conditions (these are much like independent variables)

  • A set of outcomes (these are like dependent variables)

  • A process that transforms the starting conditions into the outputs we observe (this is the notion of mechanism)