Introduction to social network methods
18. Some statistical tools
This page is part of an on-line text by Robert A. Hanneman (Department of Sociology,
University of California, Riverside) and Mark Riddle (Department of Sociology, University of
Northern Colorado).+ Feel free to use and distribute this textbook, with citation. Your
comments and suggestions are very welcome. Send me e-mail.
Contents of chapter 18:+ Some statistical tools
Introduction: + Applying statistical tools to network data
Describing one network
o Univariate descriptive statistics
o Hypotheses about one mean or density
Comparing two relations for the same set of actors
o Hypotheses about two paired means or densities
o Correlation between two networks with the same actors
o Network regression
Explaining attributes of networked actors
o Hypotheses about the means of two groups
o Hypotheses about the means of multiple groups
o Regressing position on attributes
Explaining the relations among actors in a network
o Hypotheses about relations within/between groups
o Homophily models
o Hypotheses about similarity and distance
o The probability of a dyadic tie: + Leinhardt's P1
Summary
Introduction:+ Applying statistical tools to network data
Network analysis in the social sciences developed from a conjuncture of
anthropologist's observations about relations in face-to-face groups and
mathematical graph theory.+ A very large part of social network methodology,
consequently, deals with relatively small networks, networks where we have
confidence in the reliability of our observations about the relations among the
actors.+ Most of the tools of social network analysis involve the use of
mathematical functions to describe networks and their sub-structures.
