Lecture A3 (2023-01-17): Causal Loop Diagrams and Model Building

In this lecture, we review the basic concept of a system as a group of interrelated components, and then we move on to describe dynamical models that represent systems and help to answer "What If" questions. "Variables" in these models can be endogenous, exogenous, or excluded entirely for model simplicity and research-question relevance. We then go into re-introducing the causal loop diagram (CLD), which is itself a kind of qualitative model that captures the systemic structures in a system of interest. We give the rules for naming variables in a CLD, we discuss the formation of causal links, and then we save feedback loops (and their polarities and related traps) for the next lecture.

Whiteboard notes for this lecture can be found at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ugnh0133vchbg69/SOS220-LectureA3-2023-01-17-Causal_Loop_Diagrams_and_Model_Building.pdf?dl=0