Browsing by Subject "Social networks"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Associations Between Social Networks and Long-Distance Relationships
    (2006) Kozakewich, Elena
    The purpose of this research was to integrate long-distance relationship (LDR) research with the study of social networks and social influence. We examined how college students in LDRs' reported commitment may be influenced by the behaviors and beliefs of their closest male and female friend. We sought to expand on Etcheverry and Agnew's (2004) research concerning network influence on romantic relationship commitment, as a function of normative beliefs moderated by motivation to comply with network members' beliefs. However, we used network behaviors in place of normative beliefs and examined additional factors that could moderate associations between social network behavior and LDR commitment. In Study 1, 109 college students in a psychology class provided a total of 387 supportive behaviors and 326 unsupportive behaviors that they thought they might engage in if they had a friend in an LDR. In study 2, 439 participants currently involved in LDRs took an online survey about their LDR, their closest male and female friend, and how they thought their friends' opinions related to their LDR. Participants also reported how frequently their male and female friend exhibited some of the most commonly reported behaviors from Study 1. Supportive network behavior was significantly correlated with participants' reported commitment scores (unsupportive behavior was negatively correlated with commitment). Motivation to comply moderated the relationship between network behavior and participants' LDR commitment, as predicted by previous research. Other sources of moderation were also assessed, including sex of friend and closeness of friend (mixed results), and specific relationship knowledge of friend and general relationship knowledge of friend (results as predicted; moderation increased the behavior-commitment association).
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    Exploring Trait-level Variance of Dispositional Need for Approval from Social Networks
    (2008) Abrams, Allyson; Le, Benjamin
    The present research examines need for approval from social networks in regards to an individual's relationship as a dispositional trait, varying at individual levels. In order to explore trait-level need for approval, associations between need for approval and other dispositional-level traits were examined, including self-esteem, attachment dimensions, personality traits, including extraversion, neuroticism, and agreeableness, collectivistic and individualistic orientations, and the dimensions of autonomy and sociotropy. Measurement of need for approval involved an original scale construction. Two-hundred eighty participants completed a web-based questionnaire. Significant associations were identified between dispositional-need for approval and individualism, collectivism, attachment avoidance, sociotropy, extraversion (including its facet of warmth), and agreeableness. These results suggest that need for approval from social networks is distinct, but related to individual difference dimensions.
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    Fairness and Information Access Clustering in Social Networks
    (2020) Beilinson, Hannah; Friedler, Sorelle
    My thesis focuses on strategies to analyze fairness in information spread in social networks. Building off the field of influence maximization, I examine how the spread of information in a social network advantages some individuals over others. I review how others have handled fairness analysis in influence maximization and propose information access clustering as a new method to examine fairness. I formalize information access disparity by clustering individuals in social networks into groups based on their level of information access. I then show that these information access clusters correlate to existing measures of information access, using a coauthorship dataset as an example. I also explore variations on the information access clustering algorithm.
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    Influence and Equity in Faculty Co-Authorship Networks
    (2024) Ellis-Einhorn, Mia; Friedler, Sorelle
    Faculty co-authorship networks reflect the connections between faculty members in academia. These connections open individuals to information access. Faculty co-authorship networks, like other social networks, can create a power imbalance between faculty who have access to information and those who don’t. In this thesis, I seek to understand this power structure and develop methods to make information access in computer science more equitable. Computer Science (CS) suffers from a lack of diversity and underrepresentation of women and minority groups. Mentorship programs are a proven, effective strategy to improve diversity in these fields. I seek to develop a mentorship pairing algorithm based on a CS co-authorship network and demographic information of faculty members to increase diversity in the field. To work towards this goal, we collect demographic information on faculty members and analyze edge augmentation strategies focused on improving information access.
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    Navigating Health Care Worlds: Community, Belonging, and Care at Haverford College During the Covid-19 Pandemic
    (2024) Komatsu, Naomi Bleier; Sertbulut, Zeynep
    The Covid-19 pandemic had a profound impact on how individuals and communities care for one another. It exposed and compounded the structural inequalities that are faced by marginalized communities worldwide. At Haverford College, students, staff, and faculty experienced the pandemic in different ways, depending on their social positions in the community and the wider world. The pandemic made visible an insider/outsider dynamic present within the community, but at the same time offered an opportunity for community members to contest and alter this dichotomy. Drawing on an array of anthropological scholarship and ethnographic fieldwork, including participant-observation and semi-structured interviews, that I conducted at Haverford College in the winter of 2024, this thesis addresses questions of institutional and community imperatives to provide care during the Covid-19 pandemic; what it means to belong in this community; and what care practices that are centered on an awareness of structural inequalities look like. I argue that caring and belonging in the Haverford College community are intimately linked, and involve demonstrating the values of the imagined insider: a person dedicated to social justice, egalitarianism, and community. During the pandemic, students, staff, and faculty came together to organize community care practices in order to bring attention to the social hierarchies and structural inequalities present within the Haverford College community. Through these care practices, they attempted to challenge these social structures and demonstrate their worthiness of care and protection by performing the role of an imagined insider.
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    Social Network Disclosure in Romantic Relationships: Associations with Approval and Commitment
    (2008) Layfield, Carly; Le, Benjamin
    Past romantic relationship research has focused on disclosure, perceived approval, and commitment to the romantic relationship. Our current study examined these same relationship factors but with an emphasis on which specific disclosure items were being revealed to which specific social network members (i.e. fathers, mothers, and friends). Through the use of electronically administered inventories completed by 188 college-aged participants, our work demonstrated that social network disclosure significantly predicts perceived levels of approval from social network members and that perceived level of approval is positively associated with commitment level to the romantic relationship. Additionally, significant interactions were found among the sex of the partner in the romantic relationship and their disclosure to male and female social network members. Males were found to disclose more to their male friends and to their fathers than females, while females were found to disclose more to their female friends and to their mothers than males. Findings also indicated that, regardless of sex, individuals disclose more about their romantic relationships to their closest friend than to their parents. Overall, the results support that college-aged individuals have different relationships with their parents than with their closest friend in terms of disclosing information about their romantic relationships.
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    Social Network Disclosure in Romantic Relationships: Associations with Approval and Commitment
    (2008) Harmon, Rebecca A.; Le, Benjamin
    The specific topics that people disclose to their social networks, including their mothers, fathers, and friends, were investigated. Participants included 188 college-aged students who voluntarily completed an online survey. Results revealed that males and females disclose different amounts of information overall, and that their levels of disclosure depend on the social network to whom they are disclosing. Results also indicated that positive disclosure is associated with perceived levels of approval, perceived levels of approval are positively associated with commitment, and closeness to a social network is associated with amount of disclosure. Finally, partners in romantic relationships disclose more information overall (despite content) to their friends than to their parents. This finding suggests that people’s relationships with their parents differ greatly from their relationships with their friends, and consequently, their disclosure styles (i.e., what and how much they disclose) as well as their romantic relationships in general, are affected by their varying relationships with their social networks.