| Education
B.S., Systems Theory, Duke University Advisors
Dr. Kathleen Carley, Dr. David Krackhardt, and Dr. Shelby Stewman
Interests
My interests lie primarily in the area of mathematical sociology,
particularly within the realms of social networks, analytical modeling,
simulation, and nonlinear dynamics. Substantively, my primary focus is
the modeling of social structure, together with the effects of such
structure on social processes. Some of my research to date has examined
social macrostructure, emergent phenomena such as collective behavior
(panics, fads, herds, etc.) and the formation of ritualized interaction
between agents; I am also interested in basic methodological and
theoretical issues surrounding the measurement and comparison of social
structure. My current work attempts to address these issues through
sampling strategies which look across low-level models to
find robust predictions which can, in turn, be tested via laboratory or
field research. It is my hope that these models can ultimately be used to
forge general theories regarding a wide range of structural phenomena.
Working papers/ Publications
Anderson, Brigham S., Butts, Carter T., and Carley, Kathleen M. (1999).
"The Interaction of Size and Density with Graph Level Indices." Social
Networks, 21(3), 239-267.
Anderson, Brigham S., Butts, Carter T., and Carley, Kathleen M. (1998).
"The Interaction of Size and Density with Graph Level Measures." ICES
Research Report 88-05-98, Carnegie Mellon University.
Butts, Carter T. (1998). "A Bayesian Model of Panic in Belief."
Computational & Mathematical Organization Theory, 4(4), 373-404.
Butts, Carter T. (1998). "`An Invisible and Insuperable Barrier' :
Enculturation, Stratification, and Ritual Interaction." ICES Research
Report 88-01-98, Carnegie Mellon University.
Butts, Carter T. (1998). "Generating Panic within Populations."
ICES Research Report 88-03-98, Carnegie Mellon University.
Butts, Carter T. (1998). "Cluster Analysis of Unlabeled Structures."
ICES Research Report 88-04-98, Carnegie Mellon University.
Butts, Carter T. and Carley, Kathleen M. (1998). "Canonical Labeling to
Facilitate Graph Comparison." ICES Research Report 88-06-98, Carnegie
Mellon University.
Fararo, Thomas J. and Butts, Carter T. (1999). "Advances in Generative
Structuralism: Structured Agency and Multilevel Dynamics." Journal
of Mathematical Sociology, 24(1), 1-65.
Miller, John H., Butts, Carter T., and Rode, David C. (1998).
"Communication and Cooperation." Sante Fe Institute Working Paper,
98-04-37.
Thesis Topic
"Spatial Models of Large-Scale Interpersonal Networks
Empirical studies of human contact networks suggest a strong relationship
between physical distance and frequency of tie occurrence; such past
studies have been complemented by theoretical work suggesting the
importance of space, technology, available energy, and demographic factors
in determining human relations. Here, a general family of stochastic
network models is considered which predict tie probability from a distance
function defined on an embedding of actors in a social and/or physical
space. It is shown that these models lead to a set of stochastic
equivalence relations on sets of actors, which can be expressed purely in
terms of spatial regions. Several measures of relational macrostructure
are also introduced, and their expectations are given for several spatial
models. Given several data sets relating distance and tie probability,
hierarchical Bayesian models are used to estimate parameters for the
stochastic network model, and these parameter estimates are in turn used
to simulate large-scale macrostructure from observed population
distributions. Implications of the tie probability models (and resulting
networks) for are examined for a range of structural phenomena, and
procedures are developed for macrostructural inference.
Teaching Assistant Information
Introduction to Information Systems
Information Systems Development
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Social and Decision Sciences