Conducting personal network research a practical guide

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: Prologue<BR /> 1. Introduction<BR /> What Is This Chapter About?<BR /> 1.1 Everyone Has a Personal Network<BR /> 1.2 The Size, Composition, and Structure of Personal Networks<BR /> 1.3 Egos, Alters, Egocentric Networks, and Sociocentric Networks<BR /> 1.4 Should I Use Personal Network or Whole Network Analysis?<BR /> Box: Combining Personal and Whole Networks<BR /> 1.5 Who Is This Book For?<BR /> 1.6 Book Overview<BR /> Chapter Summary<BR /> 2. How Personal Networks Have Been Used So Far<BR /> What Is This Chapter About?<BR /> 2.1 A Brief History of Personal Network Analysis<BR /> Box: The Bott Hypothesis about Conjugal Roles and Social Networks<BR /> Box: Clyde Mitchell and the Manchester School<BR /> Box: The Small World Experiment<BR /> Box: The East York Studies<BR /> 2.2 What We Currently Know about Personal Networks<BR /> 2.3 Theoretical Frameworks for Effects of Personal Networks on Individual Outcomes<BR /> 2.4 Final Remarks<BR /> Chapter Summary<BR /> Further Reading<BR /> 3. Developing a Research Question<BR /> What Is This Chapter About?<BR /> 3.1 Research Questions, Hypotheses, and Objectives<BR /> 3.2 Outcomes and Social Determinants<BR /> 3.3 Real or Perceived?<BR /> 3.4 Some Examples of Questions and Hypotheses in Personal Network Research<BR /> Chapter Summary<BR /> Further Reading<BR /> 4. Getting Started: Selecting a Population, Survey Mode, and Sampling Frames<BR /> What Is This Chapter About?<BR /> 4.1 Deciding Whether Personal Network Analysis Is Appropriate<BR /> 4.2 Selecting a Population<BR /> Box: Neighborhood Networks and Status<BR /> Box: Emotional Support and Cognitive Functioning among the Elderly<BR /> Box: Social Support and Smoking in African American Adults<BR /> 4.3 The Survey Mode<BR /> 4.4 The Sampling Frame<BR /> 4.5 Integration with Larger Surveys<BR /> 4.6 Identifying Dependent and Explanatory Variables<BR /> Box: Loneliness and Dementia<BR /> Box: Personal Networks and Ethnic Identity<BR /> Chapter Summary<BR /> Further Reading<BR /> 5. Questions about the Ego<BR /> What Is This Chapter About?<BR /> 5.1 Variables and Research Aims: What Questions to Ask<BR /> Box: Personal Networks and Social Support: Comparing Two Ethnic Groups in Southern California<BR /> 5.2 Levels of Measurement<BR /> Box: Needle-Sharing and Personal Network Correlates<BR /> 5.3 Wording a Question<BR /> Chapter Summary<BR /> Further Reading<BR /> 6. Delineating Personal Networks: Alter Elicitation<BR /> What Is This Chapter About?<BR /> 6.1 What Is a Name Generator?<BR /> Box: Contact Lists in Phones and Personal Networks<BR /> 6.2 How Social Ties Are Stored in Memory and How They Are Recalled<BR /> Box: Probing<BR /> 6.3 Defining the Boundaries of Personal Networks<BR /> 6.4 Name Generators for Eliciting Intentional (Nonrandom) Subsets of Alters<BR /> Box: Multiple Name Generators for Social Support<BR /> Box: Single- and Multiple-Name Generators<BR /> 6.5 A Name Generator for Eliciting a Random Subset of Alters<BR /> 6.6 Additional Qualifiers of the Network Boundary<BR /> 6.7 Alternative Approaches to Name Generators<BR /> Box: Keeping Diaries of Contacts during Three Months and Beyond<BR /> 6.8 Final Remarks<BR /> Chapter Summary<BR /> Further Reading<BR /> 7. Collecting Alter Attributes<BR /> What Is This Chapter About?<BR /> 7.1 What Is a Name Interpreter?<BR /> 7.2 What We Really Know about Alters<BR /> Box: Alters' Real Attributes or the Ego's Perception of Their Attributes?<BR /> 7.3 Questions about the Attributes of Alters<BR /> 7.4 Questions about Relationships between the Ego and the Alter<BR /> Box: Tie Strength: Closeness, Duration of Relationship, or Frequency of Contact?<BR /> Box: Level of Knowing, Duration of Relationship, and Frequency of Contact<BR /> Box: The Friendship Label<BR /> 7.5 How Many Questions about Alters? Respondent Burden<BR /> Box: Ordering Questions about Alters Alterwise or Questionwise<BR /> Chapter Summary<BR /> Further Reading<BR /> 8. Collecting Data about Ties between Alters<BR /> What Is This Chapter About?<BR /> 8.1 What Is an Edge Interpreter?<BR /> 8.2 What We Really Know about Alter-Alter Ties<BR /> 8.3 Alter-Alter Prompts<BR /> Box: Detailed Answer Categories for Smaller Personal Networks<BR /> 8.4 Respondent Burden<BR /> Box: The Reliability of Respondents' Evaluations of Alter-Alter Ties<BR /> Box: A Different Way to Explore Network Structure and Composition<BR /> Chapter Summary<BR /> Further Reading<BR /> 9. Visualizing Personal Networks<BR /> What Is This Chapter About?<BR /> 9.1 Personal Network Visualization: Basic Principles<BR /> 9.2 Collecting Personal Network Data through Visual Displays<BR /> 9.3 Network Visualizations as Cues in Qualitative Interviews<BR /> 9.4 Comparing Personal Networks through Visualizations<BR /> Chapter Summary<BR /> Further Reading<BR /> 10. Measuring Personal Network Characteristics without Generating Names<BR /> What Is This Chapter About?<BR /> 10.1 Characteristics of Larger Personal Networks<BR /> 10.2 Personal Network Size<BR /> Box: The Random Mixing Assumption in the Network Scale-Up Method<BR /> 10.3 Social Distance<BR /> 10.4 Social Capital<BR /> 10.5 Social Support<BR /> Chapter Summary<BR /> Further Reading<BR /> 11. Analyzing Personal Network Composition and Structure<BR /> What Is This Chapter About?<BR /> 11.1 Summarizing Name Interpreters and Edge Interpreters by Respondents<BR /> 11.2 Creating Simple Compositional Variables from Personal Networks<BR /> Box: How to Use SPSS for Working with Personal Network Data<BR /> 11.3 More Advanced Compositional Variables<BR /> Box: The Power of Homophily<BR /> 11.4 Creating Simple Structural Variables from Personal Networks<BR /> Box: To Include or to Exclude Ego?<BR /> Box: Personality and Personal Network Structure<BR /> 11.5 Creating Compositional Variables Based on More Than One Attribute<BR /> 11.6 Creating Variables That Combine Composition and Structure<BR /> Box: 11.7 Adding Compositional and Structural Variables to the Dataset<BR /> Chapter Summary<BR /> Further Reading<BR /> 12. Statistical Modeling with Personal Network Data: The Level of Egos<BR /> What Is This Chapter About?<BR /> 12.1 Personal Network Data and Statistical Modeling<BR /> 12.2 Predicting Ego-Level Dependent Variables<BR /> 12.3 Models for Non-Network Dependent Variables<BR /> Box: Using Personal Network Characteristics to Predict Immigrant Assimilation<BR /> Box: The Effect of Personal Network Exposure on Reproductive Health Behavior<BR /> Box: A Longitudinal Analysis of Personal Support Networks and Depression<BR /> Box: Using Cluster Analysis to Find Types of Immigrants' Personal Networks<BR /> 12.4 Models for Network Dependent Variables<BR /> Box: Predicting Network Dependent Variables with Generalized Linear Models<BR /> Chapter Summary<BR /> Further Reading<BR /> 13. Statistical Modeling with Personal Network Data: The Level of Alters and Ties<BR /> What Is This Chapter About?<BR /> 13.1 Statistical Models for Alters or Ego-Alter Ties<BR /> Box: Testing Theories on Social Support with Hierarchical Models for Personal Networks<BR /> 13.2 Statistical Models for Alter-Alter Ties<BR /> Box: Modeling Alter-Alter Ties to Study Transitivity and Homophily<BR /> Box: Using Personal Networks to Estimate Whole Network Characteristics through ERGMs<BR /> Box: Using SAOMs to Examine the Evolution of Alter-Alter Ties over Time<BR /> Chapter Summary<BR /> Further Reading<BR /> 14. Ethics in Personal Network Research<BR /> What Is This Chapter About?<BR /> 14.1 Personal Network Research and Ethical Dilemmas<BR /> 14.2 Gaining Consent<BR /> 14.3 Confidentiality<BR /> Box: Incentives and Respondent-Driven Sampling<BR /> 14.4 Social Media and Mobile Phones<BR /> 14.5 Managing and Publishing Personal Network Data<BR /> Box: Doing Network Research in Organizational Settings<BR /> Chapter Summary<BR /> Further Reading<BR /> Appendix: Software<BR /> References<BR />.

"Written at an introductory level, and featuring engaging case examples, this book reviews the theory and practice of personal and egocentric network research. This approach offers powerful tools for capturing the impact of overlapping, changing social relationships and contexts on individuals' attitudes and behavior. The authors provide solid guidance on the formulation of research questions; research design; data collection, including decisions about survey modes and sampling frames; the measurement of network composition and structure, including the use of name generators; and statistical modeling, from basic regression techniques to more advanced multilevel and dynamic models. Ethical issues in personal network research are addressed. User-friendly features include boxes on major published studies, end-of-chapter suggestions for further reading, and an appendix describing the main software programs used in the field.<BR />"--