IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/qualqt/v47y2013i1p567-576.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Increasing the capacity of conceptual diagrams to embrace contextual complexity

Author

Listed:
  • David Britt
  • Yung-Chou Chen

Abstract

Conceptual models or diagrams have been used for many years to visually convey information, and they represent a subset of graphic presentation more generally. Historically, they have been used to describe, interpret and explain relationships among concepts deemed relevant to the understanding of some phenomena. This paper makes specific recommendations for increasing the capacity of models to clearly convey a particular form of complexity, that involving multiple contexts or levels of analysis. In particular, the inclusion of negotiated or constructed contexts as contexts, the use of small multiples to create a dialog with orienting models around specification decisions, and the representation of alternate scenarios are recommended. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013

Suggested Citation

  • David Britt & Yung-Chou Chen, 2013. "Increasing the capacity of conceptual diagrams to embrace contextual complexity," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 567-576, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:47:y:2013:i:1:p:567-576
    DOI: 10.1007/s11135-011-9479-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11135-011-9479-0
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11135-011-9479-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Krieger, Nancy, 1994. "Epidemiology and the web of causation: Has anyone seen the spider?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 887-903, October.
    2. Rothman, K.J. & Greenland, S., 2005. "Causation and causal inference in epidemiology," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 95(S1), pages 144-150.
    3. Diez-Roux, A.V., 1998. "Bringing context back into epidemiology: Variables and fallacies in multilevel analysis," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 88(2), pages 216-222.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Myers, Douglas J. & Kriebel, David & Karasek, Robert & Punnett, Laura & Wegman, David H., 2007. "The social distribution of risk at work: Acute injuries and physical assaults among healthcare workers working in a long-term care facility," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 794-806, February.
    2. Roberts, Eric T. & Matthews, Derrick D., 2012. "HIV and chemoprophylaxis, the importance of considering social structures alongside biomedical and behavioral intervention," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(9), pages 1555-1561.
    3. Marklund, Staffan & Bolin, Malin & von Essen, Jan, 2008. "Can individual health differences be explained by workplace characteristics?--A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 650-662, February.
    4. Etsuji Suzuki & Saori Kashima & Ichiro Kawachi & S V Subramanian, 2012. "Geographic Inequalities in All-Cause Mortality in Japan: Compositional or Contextual?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(6), pages 1-12, June.
    5. Daniel Nettle, 2010. "Why Are There Social Gradients in Preventative Health Behavior? A Perspective from Behavioral Ecology," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(10), pages 1-6, October.
    6. Bolte, Gabriele, 2018. "Epidemiologische Methoden und Erkenntnisse als eine Grundlage für Stadtplanung und gesundheitsfördernde Stadtentwicklung," Forschungsberichte der ARL: Aufsätze, in: Baumgart, Sabine & Köckler, Heike & Ritzinger, Anne & Rüdiger, Andrea (ed.), Planung für gesundheitsfördernde Städte, volume 8, pages 118-134, ARL – Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.
    7. Spielman, Seth E. & Yoo, Eun-hye, 2009. "The spatial dimensions of neighborhood effects," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1098-1105, March.
    8. Alvarez, Camila H. & Evans, Clare Rosenfeld, 2021. "Intersectional environmental justice and population health inequalities: A novel approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    9. Arusha, Anowara Rayhan & Biswas, Raaj Kishore, 2020. "Prevalence of stress, anxiety and depression due to examination in Bangladeshi youths: A pilot study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    10. Louis Anthony (Tony) Cox & Edward Sanders, 2006. "Estimating Preventable Fractions of Disease Caused by a Specified Biological Mechanism: PAHs in Smoking Lung Cancers as an Example," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 881-892, August.
    11. Manoj Sharma & Erin Largo-Wight & Amar Kanekar & Hana Kusumoto & Stephanie Hooper & Vinayak K. Nahar, 2020. "Using the Multi-Theory Model (MTM) of Health Behavior Change to Explain Intentional Outdoor Nature Contact Behavior among College Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-12, August.
    12. Jordi Vallverdú, 2018. "Post Truth, Newspeak and Epidemiological Causality," Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, Biomedical Research Network+, LLC, vol. 2(1), pages 2267-2268, January.
    13. Dusan Paredes Araya & Tomothy M Komarek, 2013. "Spatial Income Inequality in Chile and the Rol of Spatial Labor Sorting," Documentos de Trabajo en Economia y Ciencia Regional 46, Universidad Catolica del Norte, Chile, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2013.
    14. Seth E Spielman & Eun-Hye Yoo & Crystal Linkletter, 2013. "Neighborhood Contexts, Health, and Behavior: Understanding the Role of Scale and Residential Sorting," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 40(3), pages 489-506, June.
    15. Ulep, Valerie Gilbert T. & Ortiz, Danica Aisa P. & Go, John Juliard & Duante, Charmaine & Gonzales, Rosa C. & Mendoza, Laurita R. & Reyes, Clarissa & Elgo, Frances Rose & Aldeon, Melanie P., 2012. "Inequities in Noncommunicable Diseases," Discussion Papers DP 2012-04, Philippine Institute for Development Studies.
    16. Zanetta Gant & Larry Gant & Ruiguang Song & Leigh Willis & Anna Satcher Johnson, 2014. "A Census Tract–Level Examination of Social Determinants of Health among Black/African American Men with Diagnosed HIV Infection, 2005–2009—17 US Areas," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(9), pages 1-7, September.
    17. Miller, Charlotte E. & Vasan, Ramachandran S., 2021. "The southern rural health and mortality penalty: A review of regional health inequities in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    18. infocede, 2001. "Desnutrición infantil en Colombia: inequidades y determinantes," Documentos CEDE 20100, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    19. Martin Gaechter & Peter Schwazer & Engelbert Theurl, 2012. "Stronger Sex but Earlier Death: A Multi-level Socioeconomic Analysis of Gender Differences in Mortality in Austria," DANUBE: Law and Economics Review, European Association Comenius - EACO, issue 1, pages 1-23, March.
    20. Jean-Baptist du Prel & Johannes Siegrist & Daniela Borchart, 2019. "The Role of Leisure-Time Physical Activity in the Change of Work-Related Stress (ERI) over Time," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-9, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:47:y:2013:i:1:p:567-576. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.