| Conventional system | Complex system |
---|---|---|
Relationship of individual to system | System comprises discrete individuals, who are considered as distinct and statistically independent from each other, but who share the system environment | System comprises individuals, each interacting with others in the system; characteristics of the whole system emerge from these interactions |
Context and culture | Context or culture seen as separate from the individuals and may be externally directed or imposed. Treated as a confounder or covariate in analysis | Context or culture seen as emergent properties of the system. In turn, these properties condition the interactions of individuals within the system |
Predictability of response to events | Multiple independent responses to change produce a coherent average value response and an approximately normal distribution | Changes to the system are usually buffered by local interaction (so have minimal effect), but sometimes events spread through the system with unexpectedly large effects |
Statistical Distributions | Normal distribution for continuous measures, Poisson distribution for events | Heavy-tailed distributions for events: typically inverse power law or log-normal |