La estructura en las redes personales.

• Main Author: McCarty, Christopher
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 2010-12-01
• Series: REDES: Revista Hispana para el Análisis de Redes Sociales
• Subjects: Personal network; Egocentric network; Social network structure
• Online Access: http://revista-redes.rediris.es/html-vol19/vol19_11.htm

Most personal (egocentric) network studies describe networks using measures that are not structural, opting instead for attribute-based analyses that summarize the relationships of the respondent to network members. Those researchers that used structural measures have done so on networks of less than 10 members who represent the network core. Although much has been learned by focusing on attribute-based analyses of personal network data, the application of structural analyses that are traditionally used on whole (sociocentric) network data may prove fruitful. The utility of this approach becomes apparent when the sample of network members elicited is relatively large. Forty-six respondents free-listed 60 network members and evaluated tie strength between all 1,770 unique pairs of members. Graph-based measures of cohesion and subgroups revealed variability in the personal network structure. Non-hierarchical clustering generated subgroups that were subsequently verified by respondents as meaningful. Further analysis of the correlation between subgroup types and overlap between subgroups demonstrates how the analysis of each network can be summarized across subjects. Four case studies are presented to illustrate the richness of the data and the value of contrasting individual matrix results to the norm as defined by all 45 subjects.