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6 - From H. Russell Bernard, Peter Killworth, David Kronenfeld, and Lee Sailer, “The Problem of Informant Accuracy”

from II - Early Foundations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2021

Edited by
Mario L. Small ,
Brea L. Perry ,
Bernice Pescosolido  and
Edward B. Smith
Mario L. Small
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Brea L. Perry
Affiliation:
Indiana University, Bloomington
Bernice Pescosolido
Affiliation:
Indiana University, Bloomington
Edward B. Smith
Affiliation:
Northwestern University, Illinois
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Summary

This chapter reviews all of the articles on informant accuracy produced by Bernard, Killworth and their colleagues, as well as the rebuttal articles that followed from various authors. Several important technological and methodological advancements came from this line of research that have had an enormous impact social network analysis and other disciplines. The second half of the chapter examines the implications of this research on personal network data collection and analysis and the reliability of results from those studies. A key question addressed in this chapter is whether the compositional and structural properties of personal networks, as reported by ego, are reliable given what we know about informant accuracy. I consider whether personal networks represent the real social context surrounding ego, or only their perception of that context, and how this affects the outcome variables that can be predicted with personal network data.

Keywords

informant accuracypersonal networksreliabilityperceived versus real networks
Type
Chapter
Information
Personal Networks
Classic Readings and New Directions in Egocentric Analysis
 , pp. 163 - 173
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

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