Ego Networks

Instructor: Brea Perry

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.

Course bibliography:

Especially recommended readings are denoted with an asterisk.

Bearman, Peter and Paolo Parigi. 2004. “Cloning headless frogs and other important matters: Conversation topics and network structure.” Social Forces 83:535-57.

Bernard, H. Russell, Peter D. Killworth, Christopher McCarty, Gene A. Shelley. 1990. “Comparing four different methods for measuring personal social networks.” Social Networks 12:179-215.

Bidart, Claire and Daniel Lavenu. 2005. “Evolutions of personal networks and life events.” Social Networks 27:359-76.

Borgatti, Stephen, Ajay Mehra, Daniel J. Brass, and Giuseppe Labianca. 2009. “Network analysis in the social sciences.” Science 323:892-95.

Burt, Ronald S. 2004. “Structural holes and good ideas.” American Journal of Sociology 110:349-99.

Campbell, Karen and Barrett Lee. 1992 “Sources of personal neighbor networks: Social integration, need or time?” Social Forces 70:1077-1100.

Christakis, Nicholas A., and James H. Fowler. 2009. "Social network visualization in epidemiology." Norwegian Journal of Epidemiology. 19: 5.

*Chua, Vincent, Julia Madej, and Barry Wellman. 2001. “Personal communities: The world according to me.” Pp. 101-115 in Handbook of Social Network Analysis, edited by Carrington and Scott. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

*Feld, Scott L., J. Jill Suitor, and Jordana Gartner Hoegh. 2007. “Describing changes in personal networks over time.” Field Methods 19:218–236.

*Halgin, Daniel S. and Stephen P. Borgatti. 2012. “An introduction to personal social network analysis and Tie Churn statistics using E-NET.” Connections 32:37-48.

Laumann, Edward O. 1969. “Friends of urban men: An assessment of accuracy in reporting their socioeconomic attributes, mutual choice, and attitude agreement.” Sociometry 32:54-69.

Lee, Rance, Danching Ruan, and Gina Lai. 2005. “Social structure and support networks in Beijing and Hong Kong” Social Networks 27:249-74.

Lin, Nan. 1999. “Building a network theory of social capital.” Connections 22:28-51.

Luken, Veronica de Miguel and Mark Tranmer. 2010. “Personal support networks of immigrants to Spain: A multilevel analysis.” Social Networks 32:253-62.

Marin, Alexandra. 2004. “Are respondents more likely to list alters with certain characteristics? Implications for name generator data.” Social Networks 26:289-307.

Marsden, Peter V. 1987. “Core discussion networks of Americans.” American Sociological Review 52:122-31.

*Marsden, Peter. 1990. “Network data and measurement.” Annual Review of Sociology 16:435-63.

McAdam, Doug and Ronnelle Paulsen. 1993. “Specifying the relationship between social ties and activism.” American Journal of Sociology 99:640-667.

McCarty, Christopher, Jose Louis Molina, Claudia Aguilar, and Laura Rota. 2007. “A comparison of social network mapping and personal network visualization.” Field Methods 19:145-164.

McFarland, Daniel and Heili Pals. 2005. “Motives and contexts of identity change: a case for network effects.” Social Psychology Quarterly 68:289–315.

McPherson, Miller, Lynn Smith-Lovin, and James M. Cook. 2001. “Birds of a feather: Homophily in social networks.” Annual Review of Sociology 27:415-44.

Morgan, David, Margaret B. Neal, and Paula Carder. 1997. “The stability of core and peripheral networks over time.” Social Networks 19:9-25.

Perry, Brea L. and Bernice Pescosolido. 2010. “Functional Specificity in Discussion Networks: The Influence of General and Problem-Specific Networks on Health Outcomes.” Social Networks 32:345-57.

Pescosolido, Bernice. 2004. “The view from two worlds: The convergence of social network reports between mental health clients and their ties.” Social Science and Medicine 58:1795-1806.

Podolny, Joel M. and James N. Baron. “Resources and relationships: Social networks and mobility in the workplace.” American Sociological Review 62:673-93.

Sampson, Robert J. and John H. Laub. 1990. “Crime and deviance over the life course: The salience of adult social bonds.” American Sociological Review 55:609-27.

Smith-Lovin, Lynn. 2003. “Self, Identity, and Interaction in an Ecology of Identities.” Pp. 167–78 in Advances in Identity Theory and Research, edited by Burke, Owens, Serpe, and Thoits. New York: Kluwer/Plenum.

Snijders, Tom, Marinus Spreen, and Ronald Zwaagstra. 1995. “The use of multilevel modeling for analyzing personal networks: Networks of cocaine users in an urban area.” Journal of Quantitative Anthropology 5:85-105.

Wellman, Barry. 1979. “The community question. The intimate networks of East Yorkers.” American Journal of Sociology 84:1201–31.

*Wellman, Barry and Kenneth Frank. 2001. “Network capital in a multi-level world: Getting support from personal communities.” Pp. 233-73 in Social Capital: Theory and Research, edited by Lin, Burt, and Cook. Chicago: Aldine De Gruyter.

Wellman, Barry. 2002. “Where does social support come from? The social network basis of interpersonal resources for coping with stress.” Pp. 1-39 in Socioeconomic Conditions, Stress, and Mental Disorders: Toward a New Synthesis of Research and Public Policy, SAMHSA.

Wellman, Barry. 2007. “Challenges in collecting personal network data: The nature of personal network analysis.” Field Methods 19:111–15.