Quantitative sociology

H. Wold, ia H. M. Blalock, ed.. Quantitative Sociolog Academic Press, New York, 1975. 

Wold H, Path models latent variables The NIPALS approach, in Quantitative Sociology. International Perspectives on Mathematical and Statistical Modeling, Blalock HM, Aganbegian A, Borodkin FM, Boudon R and Capecchi V (Eds), Academic Press, New York, 1975, pp. 307-357. 

The conceptual and mathematical framework of competitive and cooperative phenomena has been extended to socioeconomic situations (see, for example, Peschel Mende, 1985 Peschel Breitenecker, 1984). Many problems of epidemiology and of microbiology can also be converted into chemical language . Quantitative sociology (Weidlich Haag, 1983) also uses models having quite similar structure, as chemical kinetics has. 

Weidlich, W. Haag, G. (1983). Concepts and models of a quantitative sociology The dynamics of interacting populations), (Springer Series in Synergetics, Vol. 14). Springer Verlag, Berlin. 

The type of equations that apply to the dynamics of physico-chemical macrosystems have been described at some length, because the equations of quantitative sociology to be introduced in the forthcoming chapters have the same general structure. 

Therefore, in comparing physico-chemical and sociological systems in terms of synergetics the structural and global aspects of dynamic systems are stressed rather than the more detailed aspects of particular models. In this sense it may be better to call the theory of this book semi-quantitative sociology. 

Another important way in which semi-quantitative sociology may allow progress lies in the necessary clear separation between the objective neutral description of sociological structures, on the one hand, and the valuation of moral aspects and the estimation of the content of truth of ideologies on the other. 

Opinion Formation - an Elementary Example of Semi-Quantitative Sociology... 

In this chapter the type of model structure to be developed will be illustrated using an explicit example. The model of opinion formation presented here and first introduced to quantitative sociology by one of the authors [1.36, 37], is an appropriate example for the following reasons ... 

It has been shown that the key quantities of the phenomenological approach to quantitative sociology in this book are the individual transition probabilities as introduced by (3.15, 17, 19) on which the transition probabihties (3.16,18, 20)... 

If semi-quantitative sociology is to make any sense, it cannot evade the question as to whether it should contribute to the investigation of the great problems and threats of our era that arise from the existence of competing macrosocieties. The question leads back to the general problems discussed at the end of Chap. 1 and this discussion should now be resumed in the light of the other chapters and with respect to the current state of macrosociety relationships. 

---