A modified bibliometric study and citation analysis of the use of complexity theories, encompassing chaos and complexity theory, and computational simulation in published literature was conducted. Articles published during 1971-1999 in four disciplines were examined: business, education, psychology and sociology. Overall, there was a marked pattern of increased use in the terms within the social sciences. There was a differentiated use of the terms between disciplines. A qualitative study on a subset from each discipline was generated to create a disciplinary profile of the quantitative and qualitative use of the terms in research activities, called a problem topology. Three research implications that arise from the differential adaptation of the theories and methods into the four social sciences are discussed.