Assessing ego-centered social networks in formr: a tutorial

Louisa M. Reins*, Ruben C. Arslan, Tanja M. Gerlach

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
110 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In psychological science, ego-centered social networks are assessed to investigate the patterning and development of social relationships. In this approach, a focal individual is typically asked to report the people they interact with in specific contexts and to provide additional information on those interaction partners and the relationships with them. Although ego-centered social networks hold considerable promise for investigating various interesting questions from psychology and beyond, their implementation can be challenging. This tutorial provides researchers with detailed instructions on how to set up a study involving ego-centered social networks online using the open-source software formr. By including a fully functional study template for the assessment of social networks and extensions to this design, we hope to equip researchers from different backgrounds with the tools necessary to collect social-network data tailored to their research needs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-27
JournalAdvances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science
Volume4
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01 Jan 2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Gert Stulp for sharing his extension of the Graphical Ego-Centered Network Survey Interface (GENSI). We also thank Antonio Amaddio and Felix Lappe for setting up the proof of concept for an implementation of GENSI in formr. Furthermore, we thank Isa Garbisch for testing the tutorial and providing feedback for its improvement.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.

Keywords

  • online assessment
  • open materials
  • open source
  • social networks

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Psychology

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