ABSTRACT
Feedback exists when the changes that take place in a concept have effects that in turn, have implications for the status of the original concept. In an earlier chapter, I considered a simple feedback loop in which there were only two concepts that either mutually reinforced or balanced one another. In this chapter, I consider more complicated examples in which concepts have been added to the model that specify indirect effects. Expanding the discussion of elaboration to consider feedback loops—a closed sequence of causes and effects—and their connections to one another to form feedback systems opens the door to much more realistic and powerful analyses of social phenomena. As one text in systems dynamics put it:
We assert that organizations, economies, societies—in fact, all human systems—are feedback systems. Viewing them as such provides great leverage for understanding societal problems. (Richardson & Pugh, 1981, p. 2)
