Ego Networks

Instructor: Jeff Johnson

This module provides an overview of the personal or ego network approach. Research on personal networks is generally interested in understanding how both the structure and composition of social relations in an actor’s immediate social world might influence or be related to social behavior (e.g., smoking behavior) or such things as power, social capital, social and psychological well-being, access to resources, attitude formation, etc. In personal networks respondents (egos) consist of a sample drawn from a population of interest (usually random) and asked to report on their interactions with others (alters) making this approach particularly well suited for use in social surveys. The presentation will touch on research design, data collection, and data analysis in personal network studies, including the use of position and resource generator approaches for the study of social capital. In addition, examples of various software programs for the collection and analysis of personal network data will be provided. These include the programs EgoNet, E-Net and EgoWeb.

Slides