Análise de trajetória

Abstract

This article tries to present, in an operational way, the so-called Trajectory Analysis method. We owe its bases to the geneticist Sewall Wright. The method has been rather discussed by other investigators since the first works on it, in 1918, what contributed very much to its improvement. Nowadays, the trajectory analysis is applied to several fields of human knowledge. In the geographical context this method appears as a powerful instrument for a realistic approach of varied systems, where the existence of causation is admitted. Nevertheless, Wright himself stated that the trajectory analysis "isn't restricted at all to the relations that can be described as those of cause and effect. It can be applied to purely mathematical linear systems and it is incorporated with the multiple regression method."