Anuška Ferligoj: MEASURING NETWORKS: RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY

Anuška Ferligoj:

“Unfortunately, it's not possible to measure social networks without measurement error. This problem is too frequently overlooked when it comes to the analysis of network data. Some questions have to be asked. How much of measurement error is there in a certain measurement? What is the quality of the obtained measurements? The measurement quality in survey research is usually estimated by reliability and validity. This implies we need to know which measurement instrument characteristics produce better measurements of network data.

Many times a social network is measured by a survey. Ferligoj, Hlebec and Kogovšek systematically studied the effects of question wording, methods of naming related actors and several other mesurement and actor characteristics on reliability and validity of whole and egocentric network measurement. An overview of the obtained results from this sustained program of research, together with some recent findings of other studies will be presented. Proposals for producing quality social network data will be given”.

* Anuška Ferligoj is a Slovenian mathematician and social scientist, working in the field of social network analysis. Her interests include multivariate analysis, social networks (measurement quality and blockmodeling), and survey methodology (reliability and validity of measurement). She is also an editor and member of editorial boards of many international journals (including Journal of Mathematical Sociology and Social Networks). She was awarded the title of Ambassador of Science of the Republic of Slovenia in 1997.