Vu Tuong Manh, Probst Charlotte, Nielsen Alexandra, Bai Hao, Buckley Charlotte, Meier Petra S, Strong Mark, Brennan Alan, Purshouse Robin C
School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield.
Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
J Artif Soc Soc Simul. 2020 Jun 30;23(3). doi: 10.18564/jasss.4282.
This paper introduces the MBSSM (Mechanism-Based Social Systems Modelling) software architecture that is designed for expressing mechanisms of social theories with individual behaviour components in a unified way and implementing these mechanisms in an agent-based simulation model. The MBSSM architecture is based on a middle-range theory approach most recently expounded by analytical sociology and is designed in the object-oriented programming paradigm with Unified Modelling Language diagrams. This paper presents two worked examples of using the architecture for modelling individual behaviour mechanisms that give rise to the dynamics of population-level alcohol use: a single-theory model of norm theory and a multi-theory model that combines norm theory with role theory. The MBSSM architecture provides a computational environment within which theories based on social mechanisms can be represented, compared, and integrated. The architecture plays a fundamental enabling role within a wider simulation model-based framework of abductive reasoning in which families of theories are tested for their ability to explain concrete social phenomena.
本文介绍了基于机制的社会系统建模（MBSSM）软件架构，该架构旨在以统一的方式用个体行为组件来表达社会理论的机制，并在基于智能体的仿真模型中实现这些机制。MBSSM架构基于分析社会学最近阐述的中程理论方法，并采用统一建模语言图在面向对象编程范式中进行设计。本文给出了两个使用该架构对导致人群层面酒精使用动态变化的个体行为机制进行建模的实例：规范理论的单理论模型以及将规范理论与角色理论相结合的多理论模型。MBSSM架构提供了一个计算环境，在这个环境中，基于社会机制的理论能够得到表示、比较和整合。该架构在更广泛的基于仿真模型的溯因推理框架中发挥着基础性的支持作用，在这个框架中，对一系列理论解释具体社会现象的能力进行检验。
