Reinforcing and Balancing Loops
To determine if a causal loop is reinforcing or balancing, one can start with an assumption, e.g. "Node 1 increases" and follow the loop around. The loop is:
- reinforcing if, after going around the loop, one ends up with the same result as the initial assumption.
- balancing if the result contradicts the initial assumption.
Or to put it in other words:
- reinforcing loops have an even number of negative links (zero also is even, see example above)
- balancing loops have an uneven number of negative links.
Identifying reinforcing and balancing loops is an important step for identifying Reference Behaviour Patterns, i.e. possible dynamic behaviours of the system.
- Reinforcing loops are associated with exponential increases/decreases.
- Balancing loops are associated with reaching a plateau.
If the system has delays (often denoted by drawing a short line across the causal link), the system might fluctuate.
Read more about this topic: Causal Loop Diagram
Famous quotes containing the words balancing and/or loops:
“Communication is a continual balancing act, juggling the conflicting needs for intimacy and independence. To survive in the world, we have to act in concert with others, but to survive as ourselves, rather than simply as cogs in a wheel, we have to act alone.”
—Deborah Tannen (20th century)
“An accurate charting of the American woman’s progress through history might look more like a corkscrew tilted slightly to one side, its loops inching closer to the line of freedom with the passage of time—but like a mathematical curve approaching infinity, never touching its goal. . . . Each time, the spiral turns her back just short of the finish line.”
—Susan Faludi (20th century)