Association and Proximity

This week we discuss measures of association, similarity and dissimilarity. A key part of this discussion is levels of measurement. We will also discuss simple regression from the point of view of getting X to look, as much as possible, like Y.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Bring laptops to class from now on. We will play. We'll need Excel, and you should probably download UCINET as well.

Primary Readings

• Borgatti. Distance and correlation

• Borgatti. Notes on similarity measures

  • Borgatti. Measurement

  • Borgatti. Normalization

Worksheets

• • meanmedian.xls- a spreadsheet for calculating mean and median via Excel Solver