The study of social networks is called either social network analysis or social network theory.Social networks are composed of nodes and ties.Facebook is an example of a large social network.A social network is a social structure that exists between actors-individuals or organizations.The identification and definition of "roles" by the regular equivalence analysis of network data is possibly the most important intellectual development of social network analysis.Regular equivalence analysis of a network then can be used to locate and define the nature of roles by their patterns of ties.Rather than relying on attributes of actors to define social roles and to understand how social roles give rise to patterns of interaction, regular equivalence analysis seeks to identify social roles by identifying regularities in the patterns of network ties - whether or not the occupants of the roles have names for their positions.The regular equivalence approach is important because it provides a method for identifying "roles" from the patterns of ties present in a network.Most approaches to social positions define them relationally.The development of more powerful statistical tools especially tuned for the needs of social network analysis is one of the most rapidly developing "cutting edges" of the field.In this chapter we will look at some of the ways in which quite basic statistical tools have been applied in social network analysis.Inferential statistics have also proven to have very useful applications to social network analysis.Most of the tools of social network analysis involve the use of mathematical functions to describe networks and their sub-structures.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.Introduction: Applying statistical tools to network data.
We've not provided a rigorous grounding of social network analysis in graph theory.Hopefully, the core ideas of social network analysis will enrich our understanding of fields outside the social sciences.Social network analysis is also increasingly connected to the broader field of network analysis.The basic methods of studying patterns of social relations that have been developed in the field of social network analysis provide ways of rigorously approaching many classic problems in the social sciences.We hope that you've found this introduction to the concepts and methods of social network analysis to be of both interest and utility.The concepts and techniques of social network analysis are informed by, and inform the evolution of these broader fields.Social network analysis is a continuously and rapidly evolving field, and is one branch of the broader study of networks and complex systems.Our goal in preparing this book is to provide a very basic introduction to the core ideas of social network analysis, and how these ideas are implemented in the methodologies that many social network analysts use.It then became a set of lecture notes for students in his undergraduate course in social network analysis.This book began as a set of reading notes as Hanneman sought to teach himself the basics of social network analysis.Examples of Social Network Analysis in the following topics: