BY MADHURI BIND

SOCIOMETRY

INTRODUCTION

Jocob Levy Monero coined the term ‘sociometry’ and conducted the first long-range sociometric study from 1932-38 at the New York State Training school for Girls in Hudson, New York.

The word sociometry comes from the

Latin “Socius”meaning social and

The latin “metrum” meaning measure.

Jacob Moreno

(1989 - 1974),

the originator of sociometry and sociograms, created this sociogram of relationships amongst and between children in two schools; boys (the triangles) and

girls (the circles).

DEFINITION OF SOCIOMETRY

It is ‘the mathematical study of psychological properties of populations, the experimental technique of and the results obtained by application of quantitative methods’.

Moreno, 1953.

SOCIOGRAM• A sociogram is a visual representation of the

relationships among characters in a literary text. • Sociograms can be used at first to help students

understand the relationships among characters. • The spatial relationship on the page should in some

way represent each of the character’s relationship with the main character, as well as with each other.

• Lines/ arrows are used to show the ‘direction and nature’ of the relationship for example: strength / weakness, friend/ foe, and dominance/ submissiveness.

• Students can begin by manipulating small pieces of paper that represent each of the characters.

• Students need to have to models to examine before they can construct one of their own.

• It may be more effective for teachers to use information from the class to develop a demonstration sociogram.

EXAMPLE OF SOCIOGRAM 12 High school students are

being divided into subgroups for work on a class project.

The first step would be to ask each of the students to note, in private, the one or several persons with whom he would rather work.

The choices can then be plotted as a diagram.

This is done by drawing arrows from person to person showing the choices.

The sociogram contains no new information over what is known from the choices of individuals for one another, but it does provide a way of picturing and understanding the groupings of people.

In this sociogram, 5,8,11, and 12 form a group. All of the first choices and all but one of the second choices stay within the group.

Person 12 is especially popular in the group, receiving the first –choice nominations of the other three members.

Persons 1, 6, 7 and 9 form a second group.

Persons 2, 4, 10 form a completely closed group in which all choices remain among the three persons.

Person 3 is an isolate, and for that reason might have difficulty in working with the any of the individuals.

Persons 6 and 11 serve as intermediaries between their respective groups.

Their relationship might be used to get better communication between the two groups or help in getting them on mutual projects.

In addition to the simple pictographic inspection of the sociogram, there are a number of indices that can be applied to sociometric data.

In case where each individual makes only one choice, an estimate of an individual popularity can be obtained as follows:

Choice status of P1= No. of persons choosing P1

N-1Where P1 stands for person 1

N stands for the number of persons in the group

Because the individual is not allowed to choose himself, the denominator of the fraction is N-1 rather than N.

Positive expansiveness

If individuals are allowed to choose as many persons in the group as they like, an index of over –all liking of the group members for one another is called as “Positive expansiveness”.

Positive expansiveness of P1= No. of choices P1 makes

N-1

TYPES OF SOCIOMETRIC DEVICES

THE NOMINATION TECHNIQUEIn this relatively direct form of approach, a question is so

framed that the individual is asked to name a limited number of people from within the group with whom he would choose to associate on the basis of some stated criterion.

A typical question which could serve as the basis for an analysis of pupil choices might take this form:

“Name the boy or girl you most want to sit next to as your first choice, then the one you want as second choice, and as third choice. It is hard to arrange seats so that everyone will have at least one of his choices.”

THE RATING-SCALE APPROACH

Devices using this form ask the respondent to rate all the other members of his group, using some predetermined scale.

Typical of this approach is the Ohio Social Acceptance Scale, published by Ohio State University.

The descriptions serve to guide the respondent in assigning scale values to

his peers:“I would like to have this person as one of my very,

very best friends. I would like to spend a lot of time with this person. I would enjoy going places with this person. I would tell some of my troubles and secrets to this person and would do everything I could to help this person out of trouble…………..”

THE “WHO’S WHO” APPROACH

• This sociometric technique constitutes an excellent means of obtaining insights into pupil difficulties in meeting the standards set by their peers.

• The WHO’S WHO approach undoubtedly gives the teacher information which he cannot gain through the use of the other devices.

• The major disadvantage of this technique lies in the difficulty of analyzing pupil responses in order to arrive at a measure of an individual’s status in the eyes of the group.

PROMOTING SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT

SOME USES OF SOCIOMETRIC METHODS

TO PROMOTE COMMON INTEREST

GROUPING PUPILS

MEASURING GROWTH IN

GROUP STATUS

DETECTING CLEAVAGES

Application of sociometry in classroom

• Every teacher knows that the group of students with which he/she works is more than an aggregation of individuals.

• He/she knows that the group has form and structure.

• Some individuals are more accepted by the group while some are more rejected.

• A sociogram is an important tool for teachers.

• Its purpose is to discover group structures.

• Its value to the teacher is in its potentiality for developing greater understanding of group behavior .

• It is important for understanding the relationships within classroom.

• Once this relationship is understood by the teacher, group work can be better facilitated for greater learning to occur.

• When working with students who tend to socially withdraw or isolate themselves

• These results can then be used when assigning groups and arranging seating

Eg:– A teacher announces that the student will be given a

project for which they have to work in group. – Subsequently, the teacher instructs the student to write

their preference. – This information helps the teacher to tabulate in form of

sociogram. – The most voted names are the “central figures” and the

least voted names are isolates. – Thus a teacher can understand the group structure of the

class. – The teacher can also use sociogram to improve

interpersonal relationship in the class.

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