TY  - JOUR
AB  - Theories in sociocybernetics usually have a high degree of complexity, which may lead to methodological problems when these theories are tested in confrontation with “real world data”. From a review of the literature it appears that only a small percentage of the sociocyberneticians make an attempt to test their theory empirically. Two alternative approaches are used: the deduction from the theory of a series of univariate and bivariate hypotheses, subsequently tested with the usual statistical methods; and the reformulation of the theory into a simulation model and comparing the trajectories generated by the computer with time series of “real world data”;. Both approaches have their advantages and risks. It is shown in a simulation experiment that the inclusion of various sociocybernetical ideas (self‐referencing, goal‐referencing, morphogenesis) leads to a model with many degrees of freedom, and consequently of a large “no man’s land” in between the set of “verifiers” and the set of “falsifiers” of the theory.
VL  - 25
IS  - 7/8
SN  - 0368-492X
DO  - 10.1108/03684929610149684
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/03684929610149684
AU  - van der Zouwen Johannes
PY  - 1996
Y1  - 1996/01/01
TI  - Methodological problems with the empirical testability of sociocybernetic theories
T2  - Kybernetes
PB  - MCB UP Ltd
SP  - 100
EP  - 108
Y2  - 2024/04/19
ER  -