Structured dynamics [Elektronische Ressource] : methodology and applications of models of social interaction / vorgelegt von Gero Schwenk

STRUCTURED DYNAMICS: METHODOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS OF MODELS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades (Dr. rer. soc.) des Fachbereichs Gesellschaftswissenschaften der Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen Vorgelegt von Gero Schwenk M.A. aus Gießen 2007 1Table of Contents Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………3 Chapter one..………………………………………………………………………………..23 Interlevel Relations and Manipulative Causality Chapter two………………………………………………………………………….………42 Probabilistic Inference for Actor Centered Models Chapter three………………………………………………………………………………..65 Simple Heuristics in Complex Networks: Models of Social Influence Chapter four…………………………………………………………………………………97 Evaluating Social Influence Relations: an Item-Response-Modeling Approach Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………131 2Introduction Topic of this work is the explanation of collective behavior through its founding component, the behavior of the socially situated person. More specifically, I aim at developing methods and tools for this purpose, which are supposed to prove beneficial if applied to empirical, real world problems. As it is clearly visible, the enterprize of explaining collective behavior is at the core of many, if not all, social sciences. Be it Sociology, Social Psychology, Economics or even Business Administration: all these have to deal with the causes and consequences of collective phenomena.