Cohen, S., Brissette,
Dickens, C.M., L. McGowen, C. Percival, J. Douglas, B.
Tomensen, L. Cotter, A Heagerty, and F.H. Creed. (2004). Lack of Close
Confidant, but not Depression, Predicts Further Cardiac Events After Myocardial
Infarction. Heart 90(5): 518-522.
Bearman, P. S., Moody,
J., & Stovel, K. (2004). Chains of Affection: The Structure of Adolescent
Romantic and Sexual Networks. American Journal of Sociology, 110(1),
44-91.
Christakis, Nicholas, and James Fowler. (2007). The
Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years. The
IMPORTANT NOTE: Assignment #4 is now due on April 30 at 1:30pm
Administer the survey in the course handout to a minimum of 20 people. The survey consists of a small number of demographic questions, a position generator, and a name generator and interpreter. One quarter of your interviews must be with each of the following Penn students: freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Half of your interviews must be with men, the other half with women.
After completing your surveys analyze and discuss your findings in relation to the course readings. It is recommended that you enter your completed survey in a spreadsheet and do some basic statistics (frequencies, averages, crosstabs, etc.). At a minimum, your findings should include a discussion of the following course themes and topics: social support, network size, network density, community, privatization, network diversity, strong ties, weak ties, homophily, the role of new media (i.e. the Internet, mobile phones, and related technologies), and issues of measurement as they pertain to this survey (you must also discuss your sampling strategy). Some of these topics may be overlapping, you may address them point-by-point or you may integrate them into a more holistic or focused analysis. You may find it helpful to conduct your analysis as a comparison between different types of survey participants. For example, comparing men and women, cohorts, big networks vs. small networks, those with diverse networks vs. those who are less diverse, etc. (there are many possibilities for comparison).
You must provide evidence and references from the course readings to substantiate your findings / conclusions.
Submit your findings in the form of a blog post of 1250-2000 words. Print your full name and your blog username on the top of each survey, staple them together and hand in to the course instructor at the end of class.
Administer the survey in the course handout to a minimum of 20 people. The survey consists of a small number of demographic questions, a position generator, and a name generator and interpreter. One quarter of your interviews must be with each of the following Penn students: freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Half of your interviews must be with men, the other half with women.
After completing your surveys analyze and discuss your findings in relation to the course readings. It is recommended that you enter your completed survey in a spreadsheet and do some basic statistics (frequencies, averages, crosstabs, etc.). At a minimum, your findings should include a discussion of the following course themes and topics: social support, network size, network density, community, privatization, network diversity, strong ties, weak ties, homophily, the role of new media (i.e. the Internet, mobile phones, and related technologies), and issues of measurement as they pertain to this survey (you must also discuss your sampling strategy). Some of these topics may be overlapping, you may address them point-by-point or you may integrate them into a more holistic or focused analysis. You may find it helpful to conduct your analysis as a comparison between different types of survey participants. For example, comparing men and women, cohorts, big networks vs. small networks, those with diverse networks vs. those who are less diverse, etc. (there are many possibilities for comparison).
You must provide evidence and references from the course readings to substantiate your findings / conclusions.
Submit your findings in the form of a blog post of 1250-2000 words. Print your full name and your blog username on the top of each survey, staple them together and hand in to the course instructor at the end of class.
Tepperman, Lorne. (1975). Deviance as a Search
Process. Canadian Journal of Sociology 1
(3): 277-294.
Rogers, Everett. (2003). Diffusion Networks. Pp.
300-364 in Diffusion of Innovations.
Coleman, James S., Elihu Katz, and H. Menzel. (1957). The
Diffusion of an Innovation Among Physicians. Sociometry 20: 253-270.
Ivkovic, Zoran &
Weisbenner, Scott (2007). Information Diffusion Effects in Individual
Investors' Common Stock Purchases: Covet Thy Neighbors' Investment Choices. The Review of Financial Studies 20(4):
1327-1357.
The "small world of the university" experiment is now complete. 14
undergraduate students and 8 graduate students started the experiment
with packages intended for 2 different targets. Folders started by 7 of
the graduate students and 4 of the undergraduates successfully reached
the targets.
You can view a graph of the folder paths here. This graph was generated using NodeXL. Additional graphs and the results of the group work (part 2 of the assignment) can be found on blackboard.
The instructions for part 2 (the in class group portion) of this assignment can be found here.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The due date for part 3 of this assignment has been moved to April 23 at 1:30pm. The assignment is worth 12% of your final course grade.
Part 3 (handout):
Make sure you have a copy of the completed part 2 group worksheet for both targets.
Read the following article:
Stevenson, William B., Barbara Davidson, Ivan Manev and Kate Walsh. 1997. The Small World of the University: A Classroom Exercise in the Study of Networks. Connections 20(2): 23-33.
Taking into account your own experience with this experiment and the aggregate results for both target persons, discuss the findings of the "Small World of the University Experiment" in a blog post of 1250-2000 words. As part of your discussion, refer back to your questions and hypotheses posted in response to Part I of this assignment. Are the findings consistent with your expectations? What would be expected based on the class readings? Make sure to explicitly address and reference relevant class readings (including the article by Stevenson et al.).
You can view a graph of the folder paths here. This graph was generated using NodeXL. Additional graphs and the results of the group work (part 2 of the assignment) can be found on blackboard.
The instructions for part 2 (the in class group portion) of this assignment can be found here.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The due date for part 3 of this assignment has been moved to April 23 at 1:30pm. The assignment is worth 12% of your final course grade.
Part 3 (handout):
Make sure you have a copy of the completed part 2 group worksheet for both targets.
Read the following article:
Stevenson, William B., Barbara Davidson, Ivan Manev and Kate Walsh. 1997. The Small World of the University: A Classroom Exercise in the Study of Networks. Connections 20(2): 23-33.
Taking into account your own experience with this experiment and the aggregate results for both target persons, discuss the findings of the "Small World of the University Experiment" in a blog post of 1250-2000 words. As part of your discussion, refer back to your questions and hypotheses posted in response to Part I of this assignment. Are the findings consistent with your expectations? What would be expected based on the class readings? Make sure to explicitly address and reference relevant class readings (including the article by Stevenson et al.).
Hodgkinson, Tom. (2008, January 14). "With Friends
Like These...". Guardian.
Steinfield, Charles, Nicole B Ellison, and Cliff
Lampe. (2008). Social Capital, Self-esteem, and use of Online Social Network
Sites. Journal of Applied Developmental
Psychology 29:434-445.
Wellman, Barry (2001). Physical Place and
Hampton, Keith N, Lauren F Sessions, and Eun Ja Her
(2010). "Core Networks and New Technology: Internet, Call Phone Use, Network
Size, and Diversity." Working Paper. Annenberg School for Communication,
University of Pennsylvania.
Hampton, Keith N, Oren Livio, and Lauren F Sessions. (in
press). The Social Life of Wireless Urban Spaces: Internet Use, Social Networks,
and the Public Realm. Journal of
Communication.
Wellman, Barry, and Milena Gulia. (1999). Net-Surfers
Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities. Pp. 331-366 in Networks in the Global Village, edited
by Barry Wellman.
Baym, N., Zhang, Y. B., & Lin, M.C. (2004).
Social Interactions Across Media: Interpersonal Communication on the Internet,
Telephone and Face-to-Face. New Media
& Society, 6(3), 299-318.
Haythornthwaite, Caroline. (2002). Strong, Weak and
Latent Ties and the Impact of New Media. The Information Society 18:1-17.
Hampton, Keith & Barry Wellman (2003). Neighboring
in Netville: How the Internet Supports Community and Social Capital in a Wired
Suburb. City and Community 2(4),
277-311.
Mesch, Gustavo, & Talmud, Ilan. (2007). Similarity
and the Quality of Online and Offline Social Relationships Among Adolescents in
Wasserman, S., & Faust, K. (1994). Chapter 6:
Centrality and Prestige. In Social
Network Analysis: Methods and Applications.
Freeman, Linton. (1979). Centrality in Social
Networks: Conceptual Clarification. Social
Networks 1: 215-39.
Krebs, V. (2002).
Uncloaking Terrorist Networks. First Monday, 7(4).
Valente, T., Unger,
J., & Johnson, A. (2005). Do popular students smoke? The Association
Between Popularity and Smoking Among Middle School Students. Journal of
Adolescent Health, 37, 323-329.
Your assignment is to keep a record of every contact that you make with people over a continuous and "typical" seven day period (must be 7 days in a row; cannot be over spring break). Include all kinds of contacts, such as saying hello, chatting, talking, meeting, or sending and receiving a message, including those that take place in-person, over the phone, on the Internet, or using any other medium of communication. Note: You may exclude interactions that take place in the classroom or as part of a course assignment (our class and others).
Record your interactions shortly after they happen. Do not wait and complete the diary retrospectively at the end of the day or week (make additional copies of the diary sheets as necessary).
Each person that you interact with should be listed individually in a column on the attached worksheet. You should record the date of the first time you interact during the seven day diary period, and circle the day of the week for each day that you have an interaction. The first time a person is added to your worksheet, complete the information on personal and tie characteristics. Record each interaction by medium of communication over the duration of the seven day diary period. You do not need to add a new column for each interaction, you do need a column for each person, keep a running tally in each column (each interaction is scored as one, regardless of length). You should also update the "Content" field after each interaction.
After you have recorded your interactions for the full seven days, analyze your diary and write a blog post answering the questions in the assignment handout. Your blog post should be 1250-1750 words, not including your answer to question 1. For questions 2 and 3, be sure to discuss your answer with reference to the course readings.
Record your interactions shortly after they happen. Do not wait and complete the diary retrospectively at the end of the day or week (make additional copies of the diary sheets as necessary).
Each person that you interact with should be listed individually in a column on the attached worksheet. You should record the date of the first time you interact during the seven day diary period, and circle the day of the week for each day that you have an interaction. The first time a person is added to your worksheet, complete the information on personal and tie characteristics. Record each interaction by medium of communication over the duration of the seven day diary period. You do not need to add a new column for each interaction, you do need a column for each person, keep a running tally in each column (each interaction is scored as one, regardless of length). You should also update the "Content" field after each interaction.
After you have recorded your interactions for the full seven days, analyze your diary and write a blog post answering the questions in the assignment handout. Your blog post should be 1250-1750 words, not including your answer to question 1. For questions 2 and 3, be sure to discuss your answer with reference to the course readings.
