Exchange and cohesion in dyads and triads: A test of Simmel’s hypothesis

This paper uses social exchange theory to address a classic question posed by Simmel (1964) regarding dyads and triads. The question is whether exchanges in a triad will generate more cohesion at the group level than exchanges in an isolated dyad. The main hypotheses, integrating several ideas from Simmel and social exchange theories, are as follows. First, triads generate less variability of behavior than dyads; that is, there is more uniformity or convergence in triads. Second, in the context of repeated exchange, we predict higher levels of cohesion in triads than in dyads. Third, positive emotion or affect has a stronger impact on cohesion in dyads than in triads, whereas uncertainty reduction has a stronger impact on cohesion in triads. To test these hypotheses, an experiment compared isolated dyads to dyads nested in a triadic exchange network. Subjects engaged in exchanges across a series of distinct episodes, using standard experimental procedures from research on relational cohesion (Lawler and Yoon, 1996) and exchange networks (Molm and Cook, 1995, Willer, 1999). Consistent with the hypotheses, the results reveal more convergence of behavior and higher cohesion in triads than in dyads; moreover, uncertainty reduction is the primary basis for cohesion in the triad, whereas positive affect was the primary basis for cohesion in the dyad. These results are discussed in relation to Simmelian dyad–triad dynamics and the theory of relational cohesion.     

Perceived group cohesion versus actual social structure: A study using social network analysis of egocentric Facebook networks

Research on group cohesion often relies on individual perceptions, which may not reflect the actual social structure of groups. This study draws on social network theory to examine the relationship between observable structural group characteristics and individual perceptions of group cohesion. Leveraging Facebook data, we extracted and partitioned the social networks of 109 participants into groups using a modularity algorithm. We then surveyed perceptions of cohesion, and computed group density and size using social network analysis. Out of six linear mixed effects models specified, a random intercept and fixed slope model with group size as a predictor of perceived group cohesion emerged as best fitting. Whereas group density was not linked to perceived cohesion, size had a small negative effect on perceived cohesion, suggesting that people perceive smaller groups as more cohesive. We discuss the potential of social network analysis, visualization tools, and Facebook data for advancing research on groups.     

Friends’ religiosity and first sex

Researchers have established that individual religiosity influences sexual behavior and that religious support can increase consistency between personal religiosity and behavior. Researchers are less certain, however, of the effect that religious friendship networks have on sexual behavior. In addition, the effects of network characteristics such as density and one’s position in a social network have not been established. This paper uses a network subsample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to examine the effect of friends’ religiosity on the probability of first sex. We find that friends’ religiosity has an independent influence on adolescent sexual behavior that is similar in magnitude to personal religiosity. We also find evidence that friends’ religiosity has the strongest influence on the sexual behavior of adolescents who are embedded in dense social networks, in which teens’ friends are also friends with one another. These results support the hypothesis that group influences depend on the degree of embeddedness within the network and highlight the importance of studying religion as a property of groups as well as individuals.     

Children's immigrant generational status and delinquency: The mediating effects of friendship networks

A mounting body of empirical studies demonstrates that first-generation immigrant children have a lower level of delinquency and crime but second and third-plus generations report a precipitous increase in these behaviors. Adopting a social network approach, we analyzed the behavioral and structural characteristics of children’s friendship networks across the first, second, and third-plus immigrant generations, and investigated the mediating role of these friendship traits in explaining generational disparity. Our results reveal that children’s friendship networks differ in structural (e.g., popularity) and behavioral features (e.g., network deviance) across immigrant generations. These friendship features, particularly network peer deviance, the percentage of second-generation friends, and children’s popularity mediate the association between immigrant generational status and children’s delinquency. Extending previous research, our study highlights the importance of applying the social network approach to understand delinquency disparity across immigrant generations and suggests that the composition of friendship networks play an important role in immigrant children’s delinquency involvement.     

Network effects across the earnings distribution: Payoffs to visible and invisible job finding assistance

This study makes three critical contributions to the “Do Contacts Matter?” debate. First, the widely reported null relationship between informal job searching and wages is shown to be mostly the artifact of a coding error and sample selection restrictions. Second, previous analyses examined only active informal job searching without fully considering the benefits derived from unsolicited network assistance (the “invisible hand of social capital”) – thereby underestimating the network effect. Third, wage returns to networks are examined across the earnings distribution. Longitudinal data from the NLSY reveal significant wage returns for network-based job finding over formal job searching, especially for individuals who were informally recruited into their jobs (non-searchers). Fixed effects quantile regression analyses show that contacts generate wage premiums among middle and high wage jobs, but not low wage jobs. These findings challenge conventional wisdom on contact effects and advance understanding of how social networks affect wage attainment and inequality.     

Resources,homophily, and dependence: Organizational attributes and asymmetric ties in human service networks

This paper examines the effects of organizational attributes on power/dependence relations in interorganizational dyads. Exchange and homophily theories are discussed as two alternative perspectives on the processes that give rise to such effects. The data pertain to interagency ties in three community-based networks of youth service agencies and are analyzed via a new strategy of linear modeling dyadic relations. The results of the analysis suggest that size, administrative position, and justice system connections condition the extent to which an agency initiates and receives ties of influence, assistance, and support. Moreover, these relations are more frequent between agencies with similar treatment ideologies and client racial makeup. Finally, size and justice system access are found to reduce agency dependence on a network's administrative core. In the course of the discussion, a number of related issues and findings are discussed.     

The dual contingencies of ethnoraciality: Status-context disparities in health information sources among sexual minorities

Researchers often explore health (care) beliefs as a function of individual characteristics; yet, few consider the role of context in shaping both beliefs and the behaviors that are informed by them. As a sociopolitical construct, ethnoraciality provides a concerning source of bias in studies of health (care) beliefs because it inhabits both individual and contextual forms. This study examines whether the ethnoracial context of the residential area where sexual minorities live is associated with a particular health (care) belief – sources of trustworthy health information – and considers how ethnoracial group membership status differentiates these ecological associations drawing on mediation and moderation models. Using data from the 2010 Social Justice Sexuality Project, our analysis shows that sexual minorities who live with high concentrations of Latinos and Whites are less likely to rely exclusively on medical professionals for trustworthy health information than those who live with high concentrations of Blacks. Moreover, exclusive reliance on medical professionals for health information among Black and Latino sexual minorities is stronger in co-ethnic communities (predominately Black and Latino areas, respectively). The analysis also documents status and contextual differentials and status-context contingencies of reliance on the Internet, social networks, and multiple agents (“triangulation”) as sources of health information. Findings suggest that place-based co-ethnic networks may facilitate disease prevention among Black and Latino sexual minorities by improving the quality of their relationships with sick role gatekeepers and breaking down the silos of the medical complex. The study concludes by considering the value of a place-based approach to alleviating health disparities among sexual minorities vis-à-vis the health care system.     

Are there neighborhood effects on young adult neighborhood attainment? Evidence from mixed-logit models

Studies of racial residential attainment show an intergenerational transmission of racial contexts from youth to adulthood, but it is unclear why this transmission is so robust. It is possible that experiences in racial contexts during youth have lasting effects on neighborhood selection in adulthood, but evidence for this claim has come from research using statistical methods that suffer from problems of ecological dependence and conflation of other neighborhood characteristics. In this study, we address these limitations using mixed-logit models, a form of discrete choice analyses, allowing us to control for differences across metropolitan areas and for multiple characteristics of neighborhoods that may affect the selection of destination neighborhoods. Data for the analyses come from the National Educational Longitudinal Study, the 1990 and 2000 Censuses, and other sources. We find that most of the intergenerational process results from young adults moving to neighborhoods short distances from their origin ones, but the models also suggest a contextual effect of youth experiences in racial compositions on neighborhood selection. The latter finding indicates that policies promoting integration among youth can have long-lasting effects on residential attainment.     

Trust and contact in diverse neighbourhoods: An interplay of four ethnicity effects

Ethnically diverse neighbourhoods are generally less cohesive. A negative relationship between neighbourhood diversity and social cohesion is, however, neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition to conclude that neighbourhood diversity erodes intra-neighbourhood cohesion. This contribution shows – by using data collected during the second wave of the NEtherlands Longitudinal Lifecourse Study (NELLS) – that: (1) members of ethnic minority groups are more likely to report having contact with and trust their immediate neighbours than natives (ego ethnicity effect); (2) minority group residents are less likely to be contacted and trusted by their neighbours (alter ethnicity effect) and (3) all ethnic groups prefer to mix with coethnics (dyad ethnicity effect). Once we control for these three ethnic composition effects at the ego, alter and dyad-level, neighbourhood ethnic diversity is no longer related to less contact between neighbours. Previously identified negative relationships between neighbourhood diversity and cohesion should therefore be re-evaluated, as they may be the consequence of ethnic composition effects instead of a true neighbourhood diversity effect.     

Getting support in polarized societies: Income,social networks,and socioeconomic context

This paper explores how unequal resources and social and economic polarization affects the size of social networks and their use to access resources. We argue that individual resource position generates divergent expectations with regard to the impact of polarization on the size of networks on one hand, and their usefulness for accessing resources on the other. Social and economic polarization encourages reliance on informal networks, but those at the bottom of the social structure are forced to rely on more extensive networks than the wealthy to compensate for their isolated and underprivileged position. At the same time, social and economic polarization limits the resources the poor can access through their networks. We provide evidence consistent with these propositions, based on data derived from the International Social Survey Programme 2001 “Social Networks” dataset combined with contextual information on the levels of economic inequality in particular countries along with whether they experienced postcommunism.     

用信号流图分析开关电容网络

大型开关电容（SC）网络往往是由许多SC网络级联而成的，而级联之前要对SC子网络进行优化设计，就必须得到子网络的网络函数表达式。本文介绍了一种通过观察SC网络的拓扑结构，直接得到网络的信号流图（SFG），从而得到所需要的网络数的方法。     

The anatomy of social network linkages

Social network analysis has developed impressively during the last quarter century, producing a variety of formal models and innumerable field studies. However problems of articulation have developed between the formal models and field studies. This paper is predicated upon the judgement that the solution to this difficulty lies in more (not less) highly elaborated formal models. The aim is to present a means for representing a very broad range of social phenomena using digraphs. Departing from an anatomical investigation of the linkages and nodes of conventionally represented network structures, and from a modified exchange-theoretic concept of sanction, means are presented for conceiving social interaction as flows of sanctions and messages which are depicted as arcs in a diagraph whose nodes represent social actors. Means are also presented for representing value systems, belief systems, and message content in digraph terms. Finally, several implications are discussed of the proposed conception of networks. It is suggested that its employment in the field may increase the range of phenomena formally expressible in network models, without thereby making excessive demands for inaccessible data. Second, means are proposed for experimentally realizing selected digraphs in the small-group laboratory and for coordinating field with laboratory investigations. Third, suggestions are made for integrating social network analysis with a formal decision theory, such as mathematical decision theory or bargaining theory. The result is formal models to which systems theory may be applied as a methodology for system simulations.     

Improving models of democracy: The example of lagged effects of economic development,education, and gender equality

The author examines how time delayed effects of economic development, education, and gender equality influence political democracy. Literature review shows inadequate understanding of lagged effects, which raises methodological and theoretical issues with the current quantitative studies of democracy. Using country-years as a unit of analysis, the author estimates a series of OLS PCSE models for each predictor with a systematic analysis of the distributions of the lagged effects. The second set of multiple OLS PCSE regressions are estimated including all three independent variables. The results show that economic development, education, and gender have three unique trajectories of the time-delayed effects: Economic development has long-term effects, education produces continuous effects regardless of the timing, and gender equality has the most prominent immediate and short term effects. The results call for the reassessment of model specifications and theoretical setups in the quantitative studies of democracy.     

社区矫正对象的社会关系支持网络分析——以上海市某三个街道为例

以上海市某三个街道的实地调研资料为基础,对社区矫正对象的社会关系支持网络的特征与类型进行分析,可以发现社工是矫正对象社会关系支持的首要来源,特别在矫正对象的求职过程中,社工起到了非常重要的作用。     

从语用角度看双关语

本文从语用学角度分析了“双关”在具体语境中的语用功能 :幽默 ,讽刺 ,创造意境 ,寓意深刻。同时指出 ,“双关”常借助“语言变异”手段达到一些特殊的语用效果 ,通过“相关理论”取得最佳语境效果     

Opinions toward suicide: Cross-national evaluation of cultural and religious effects on individuals

This study evaluates the role that religious and cultural values have on individual opinions toward suicide worldwide. Using multilevel modeling with data from the fourth wave of the World Values Survey (42,299 individuals in 43 countries), the current study is designed to analyze the effect of individual (i.e., micro-level), and country (i.e., macro-level) characteristics on opinions toward suicide. Specifically, cultural values, religious affiliation, religious importance, and church attendance are analyzed at both the individual and country levels to evaluate the impact of individual and country level effects on opinions toward suicide. The results show that individual opinions toward suicide are influenced by individual belief as well as by the cultural and religious characteristics of their country. The results suggest that evaluation of individual opinions toward controversial behavior should account for the unique and cross-interaction effects of micro- and macro-level effects.     

It takes two: A dyadic model of recruitment to civic activity

Why are some people, but not others, asked to engage in civic activity? Rather than focus on the personal traits of either potential recruits or recruiters for this initial stage of recruitment, we develop and test a theoretical framework that emphasizes the importance of shared relationships and characteristics between those doing the recruiting and those being recruited. Specifically, the nature of interactions, overlapping community and associational space, status and value homophily, and strength and intimacy are assessed to explain differential recruitment among people's closest ties. Furthermore, unlike previous studies, we do so across three different forms of civic activity—blood donation, volunteer work, and political activism—allowing us to identify larger patterns in civic solicitation. Results from multilevel analyses of dyads reorganized from ego-centric data of U.S. adults show that while certain personal traits of egos and alters remain significant, attributes of the dyad are equally, if not more, consequential for explaining variation in who gets asked to participate in civic activity. Importantly, while certain dyadic characteristics—such as romantic partnerships—promote recruitment to all three forms of civic activity, the effects of others—such as sex homophily—are unique to specific forms. Broadly speaking, our results indicate that some types of dyadic characteristics are more powerful than others and that there are important differences in how particular dimensions of social connections shape recruitment efforts across the specific activities of donating blood, volunteering time, and engaging in political activism.     

Identities in flux: Cognitive network activation in times of change

Using a dynamic cognitive model, we experimentally test two competing hypotheses that link identity and cognitive network activation during times of change. On one hand, affirming people’s sense of power might give them confidence to think beyond the densest subsections of their social networks. Alternatively, if such power affirmations conflict with people’s more stable status characteristics, this could create tension, deterring people from considering their networks’ diversity. We test these competing hypotheses experimentally by priming people at varying levels of status with power (high/low) and asking them to report their social networks. We show that confirming identity—not affirming power—cognitively prepares people to broaden their social networks when the world is changing around them. The emotional signature of having a confirmed identity is feeling comfortable and in control, which mediates network activation. We suggest that stable, confirmed identities are the foundation from which people can exhibit greater network responsiveness.     

国内网络群体性事件理论研究述评

近几年随着公民通过网络维护权益的事件不断发生,在此背景下网络群体性事件迅速成为学术界研究的一个概念和领域。为深化对当前网络群体性事件研究的认识,文章梳理和评价了网络群体性事件的研究现状,并进行了展望。发现当前网络群体性事件的概念研究体现出三个分歧,即发生场域、性质、特征的分歧。生发方式和模式可概括为三式,即主体推发式、事件引发式、客体触发式。其类型为三态,即纯网络态、网络现实交互态、网络向现实的转变态。其管治也表现为三类,即柔性管治、韧性管治和刚性管治等。     

Context,network, and adolescent perceived risk

Prior research has identified a list of individual attributes, along with neighborhood, school, and network characteristics, as potential factors affecting perceived risk. However, prior research has rarely investigated the simultaneous effects of these factors on perceived risk. This study uses the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth), supplemented with the 1990 census data, to examine the associations of neighborhood, school, and network characteristics and perceived risk among adolescents. To account for the overlaps between school districts and neighborhoods, we use cross-classified multilevel modeling (CCMM). Our analyses lead to two main findings. First, perceived risk appears to be context-specific. Perceived risk at school is mostly affected by school characteristics but not by neighborhood characteristics. Perceived risk in neighborhood is mostly affected by neighborhood characteristics but not by school characteristics. Second, network characteristics matter for both types of perceived risk and more so for perceived risk at school than in neighborhood. We find that, while having more friends is associated with a lower level of perceived risk, having more friends with delinquent and violent behaviors is associated with a higher level of perceived risk among adolescents.