Any community of people is a complex structure of interpersonal relationships and microgroups. Social psychology, studying the nature of these relationships, uses a variety of techniques, but sociometry is considered the most famous and popular. This term is translated as “social dimension”, and the developer of the method is the American psychologist Jacob (Jacob) Moreno.
Sociometric theory by J. Moreno
The young doctor Jacob Moreno Levi began his research during the First World War in a refugee camp near Vienna. He drew attention to the fact that the effectiveness of the interaction of people depends on who they are currently in contact with. In some cases, communication is colored with positive emotions, and people interact with pleasure, in others, the effect of rejection occurs, and everything literally falls out of the hands of partners.
Based on his observations, Moreno came to the conclusion that society obeys the same laws of attraction and repulsion as the physical world. Therefore, in any community there are people who are drawn to each other and strive to unite in micro-groups of 3-4 people. These microgroups play an important role in the functioning of the entire community. His life is also greatly influenced by those individuals who have the gift of attraction and who are sympathetic to other members of the group.
After emigrating to the United States, J. Moreno continued his studies at a specialized school for juvenile delinquents, and then even opened the Sociometric Institute. By the mid-40s, Moreno’s doctrine was fully formed, and the author himself singled out three areas in it: sociometry, sociodrama and psychodrama.
What is the essence of sociometry
Sociometry is a special experimental technique based on mathematical methods. At present, its results are used by social psychologists to organize work with any group: a school class, an informal adolescent group, a work collective, etc.
Procedure for carrying out the technique
The organization of sociometric research is quite simple and does not require any special training, no special conditions, or equipment. Participation in diagnosis is not difficult even for primary school students.
To conduct sociometry, special questions are used (usually only one), which should put group members in a situation of choice. Usually, subjects are asked to indicate the three most preferred classmates and three rejected ones.
The very wording of the question largely depends on the age and type of activity of the group members. So, when researching a school class, the following questions may be:
- “Who would you like / would like to invite to your birthday?” and “Who would you never invite to your birthday party?”
- “Who would you like / would like to go camping with?” and “Who would you never want to go camping with?”
- “Who would you agree to be on a desert island with?” and “Who would you not like to see next to you on a desert island?”
For adults, members of a professional group, questions can be formulated in a slightly different way.
- “If you were offered to work on an important project, who of your colleagues would you like to collaborate with?” and “Who would you not like?”
- “If you went on a business trip, which of your colleagues would you like to see next to you?”
Each participant in the study receives a card on which he must write his last name and enter the names of the preferred members of the group and on the reverse side – the rejected. By the way, psychologists who diagnose a group often suggest making only positive choices. And not so much because it will be easier to process the results, but because the very need to make negative choices can generate negative emotions. Few people like to demonstrate their dislike for colleagues, an outsider. However, in a number of cases one cannot do without negative assessments, especially if there are conflicts in the team.
But it should be remembered that sociometry is one of the methods, the intermediate results of which the psychologist must keep secret so as not to worsen the social situation in the group.
Processing of the obtained results
In order to obtain materials that will be analyzed and used in work with a group, a psychologist, based on the data obtained, must solve a number of problems:
- Determine the number of positive and negative choices that each member of the group received.
- Identify the individuals who received the maximum and minimum number of votes.
- Identify people who received neither positive nor negative choices.
- Make a rating of likes and dislikes.
- Establish the presence and number of mutual elections in relation to each member of the group.
- Determine the presence and composition of microgroups.
- Establish connections between microgroups or lack thereof.
All of these are tricky and confusing, even if the group is relatively small. To facilitate the analysis of results in sociometry, the compilation of a sociogram and a sociomatrix is provided.
The sociogram is a table in which the names of the participants and their choices are entered. To do this, the first column contains the ordinal numbers and surnames of the members of the group, in the subsequent columns only the ordinal numbers. Then, at the intersection of rows and columns, elections are marked. For example, # 1 Andreev chose # 3, # 7 and # 9. Borisov chose No. 2, No. 1, No. 3 and No. 6, etc. As a result, the total amount of elections for each member of the group will be clearly visible in the vertical columns.
Then the obtained data is transferred to the sociogram. It consists of three (less often four) concentric circles, in which the numbers of the participants are located, depending on the number of elections they received. In the center – those who received the maximum number of elections. Then the arrows indicate the elections themselves, including mutual ones.
The sociogram gives a vivid picture of interpersonal relationships, and microgroups are clearly visible in it, as well as the connections between them. In studies of classrooms and youth groups, psychologists usually mark the male and female participants with different icons and place them on different sides of the sociomatrix. It is significant that there are practically no choices between boys and girls until older adolescence.
Sociometric structure of the group
There is a formal group structure, there is an informal one, and there is a sociometric one. Its peculiarity is that this method allows you to assess the subjective attitude of people towards each other. Their sympathies and antipathies, which have little to do with the objective position of individuals in the group, their professional, business qualities, and often personal ones too. This should be taken into account, for example, by a leader who wants to use the results of sociometry for the distribution of functions in a team or class.
Sociometric statuses
This is the most important component of the sociometric structure. The status is determined based on the choices received by the individual.
“Sociometric stars” have the largest number of elections and, accordingly, the highest status. They are sympathetic to many members of the group, and sometimes the majority. But it would be a mistake to identify “stars” with leaders, since they may not have the qualities necessary for a leader: organizational skills, energy and activity, rigidity and exactingness. “Stars” are usually just nice, nice and helpful people. And having been appointed to the position of a formal leader, the “star” can partially lose the sympathy of his comrades, since the leader sometimes has to make unpopular decisions or put pressure on the members of the group.
The stars are followed by high-status or “preferred” stars. They received fewer elections than the “stars”, but they enjoy significant authority in the group, and most often they include a potential leader.
Then there are two statuses, the border between which is rather unsteady. In relatively small groups, they are not even separated. These are medium-status and low-status. They do not have a lot of negative or positive choices. Often, individuals with this status form closed microgroups, choosing each other and not particularly communicating with others.
The next status is “outcast”. These are individuals who received more negative than positive choices.
“Neglected” or “outcasts” are members of a group who receive only negative choices.
“Isolated” – social psychologists consider people who did not receive either positive or negative elections the lowest status. Their position in the interpersonal hierarchy is even worse than that of the “outcasts.” “Isolated” do not seem to exist for the group at all.
Sociometric statuses are not rigidly set and can change. Of course, it is almost impossible to move from the status of “outcast” to the status of “star”, but it is quite possible to become “preferred”.
Microgroups in the sociometric structure
As a rule, sociometric research is carried out in small groups with the number of members just over 20. And in them sociometry allows you to identify microgroups of people united by mutual elections. Individuals in such formations are connected by sympathies and common interests, which makes microgroups stable elements of the structure of society.
It is these formations that the leader can effectively use to organize the work of the group as a whole. Convenience and productivity of small associations of people has been proven in pedagogy. Teachers and class teachers have long and successfully used the naturally formed structure of the class in their work. But even in working with adult communities, reliance on microgroups can make the team more effective.
On the other hand, confrontation between microgroups, which often happens, can be destructive for the collective as a whole. And sociometry allows you to timely identify the presence of tendencies of rejection between individual mini-communities.
The advantage of sociometry as a method is relative simplicity – it can be carried out even by a psychologist who does not have much experience. And sociometry is also very informative. Based on the data obtained, it is possible to create a detailed picture of interpersonal relations and determine the weight of each individual in these relations.
