Sociometric Methods

Sociometric methods include a large class of methods that assess the positive and negative links between persons in a group. The basic principle of the sociometric method is that every group member has the capacity to evaluate every other group member on one or more criteria. The term soci-ometry often has a narrower meaning—that is, the assessment of sociometric status in peer groups of children or adolescents. Sociometric methods have been used extensively in research with children and adolescents to assess their social relationships in the peer group. The origins of sociometric methods are attributed to Jacob Moreno (1934). Moreno's work was embedded in a broader movement in the social sciences at the beginning of the 20th century aimed at understanding interactions and relationships in groups. This entry reviews the basic elements of a sociometric procedure and the information it provides.

The results of a sociometric test can be presented graphically in a sociogram, a picture of the associations and connections between the members of a social network. Quantitatively, information can be derived at three levels of analysis: individual, dyad, and group. At the individual level, the results from the sociometric test can determine the degree of popularity, network cen-trality, connectedness, isolation, or rejection of every member of the group. At the dyadic level, the procedure can identify different types of dyads, such as friendships, but also antipathies, mutually aggressive dyads, bully-victim pairs, or romantic relationships. At the level of the group, the procedure can identify cliques of well-connected individuals with a certain identity who form cohesive subgroups in the larger social network.

The most common application of the sociomet-ric method in research with children and adolescents focuses on individual-level sociometric status, in particular peer rejection and popularity. What does it mean that a child or adolescent is “rejected” or “popular?” These sociometric status types are sometimes seen as absolute characteristics of the individual that are caused by stable traits or behaviors (e.g., the popular child is cooperative and helpful, whereas the rejected child is aggressive or withdrawn). However, peer status is not independent of the group in which it is assessed. A person who is accepted in one group may not be accepted in another group with different norms.

Throughout the history of sociometric measurement, various methods have been used. John Coie, [Page 1585]Kenneth Dodge, and Heide Coppotelli presented a sociometric method that has served as the standard in the child and adolescent literature since the 1980s. In this procedure, children are asked to name three classroom peers they like most (acceptance) and three they like least (rejection). Nominations received for both questions are counted for each child and standardized within classrooms to control for differences in classroom size. A continuous score for social preference is created by taking the difference between the standardized acceptance and rejection scores and again standardizing the resulting scores within classrooms. A continuous score for social impact is created by summing the standardized acceptance and rejection scores and restandardizing the results. Finally, each child is assigned to one of five socio-metric status types: popular (liked by many, disliked by few), rejected (disliked by many, liked by few), neglected (neither liked nor disliked), controversial (liked by some and disliked by others), and average (around the means of acceptance and rejection). The continuous scores and categorical status types tend to be stable over time. This suggests that peer status is difficult to change.

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