Sociometric Methods

Introduction

Sociometric methods are concerned with the study of the ways people interact with one another in groups. The way in which people in groups choose one another for different activities gives us relevant information about the social status of individuals and about the structure of the group. This technique goes back to MorenO's (1934) original work. Nowadays, a renewed interest in these [Page 915]methods has emerged due to its rich potential as a measure of social competence and the predictive value of the knowledge of the individuaL's position in the group in cases of risk behaviours.

The main construct evaluated by the sociometric test is the social status or popularity, and it has been defined as ‘a general, group-oriented construct that represents the view of the ...