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Referto Table 2.1, “SYMLOG Coding Scheme,” in Ch. 2 of the text.
Answerthe following:
What are network analysis and SYMLOG, and how they are used in group research?
As social scientists have studied groups, they have made many advances in measuring group behavior. There are now many available self-report and behavioral measures that can be used to assess group processes. Although we cannot review all of those methods here, we can consider a couple of important examples.
Sociometric Methods. One approach to measuring group processes is to use a procedure known as a network analysis. Network analysis involves determining the relationships with or feelings of each group member about every other group member. The opinions can be obtained either through self-report, for example, by asking each person how much time people in the group spend together or how much each person would like to be friends with the other group members. Alternatively, behavioral measures can be used, perhaps, by observing how much time the group members spend with one another.
Network analysis: A method of assessing group structure in which the relationships or feelings (usually assessed in terms of liking or time spent together) of each group member about each other group member are assessed.
The outcome of a sociometric analysis is a visual display known as a sociogram, which represents a picture of the networks of relationships among the people in the group (Hale, 2009). One example, conducted using a classroom of fourth graders, is presented in Figure 2.1. In the research, each of the students in the class was asked to indicate who hangs out together, and these ratings were the data for the analysis. The sociogram allows the researcher to visually inspect the patterns of relationships among the group members and to view subgroups within the overall group. In Figure 2.1, there are four subgroups. Some children belong to more than one group, and there is one dyad (group IV) that represents two good friends. Although there is none represented in this sociogram, in some cases, there may also be social isolates (individuals who are rejected by all of the other group members).
Sociogram: A visual display of a social network.
Network analysis allows the researcher to get a picture of how the individuals in a group relate to one another and to determine the types of relationship that lead to effective group functioning. For instance, research on corporations has found that employees who have broader social networks, in the sense that they interact with many different people, make more effective managers, and research with children has shown that children who are aggressive tend to cluster together, as do those who smoke cigarettes (Ennett & Bauman, 1994) and those who are motivated to do well in school (Cairns, Cairns, Necerman, Gest, & Gariepy, 1988; Kindermann, 1993).
Social network analysis has recently been applied to understanding how groups form on the Internet. One approach has been to analyze data from social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter (Aral & Walker, 2012). By studying who messages whom or who visits whose webpages researchers can get a picture of the friendship groups within the online community. Because they are based on millions of users these social networks are very complex.
(Stangor, 2016, p. 36)
Analyzing Interactions: SYMLOG. In their quest to understand group behavior, researchers have also developed techniques for measuring interactions among the members of face-to-face working groups. Perhaps the best known of these approaches is SYMLOG (System of Multiple Level of Observation of Groups), which was developed by Robert Bales and Paul Hare (Bales, 1999; Bell & Morse, 2013; Garvin, 2010). The basic idea of SYMLOG is to observe the behaviors of a working group and to code the interactions among the group members into a limited number of types of activity, which can then be used in statistical analyses. Within SYMLOG, the interactions are classified by experienced raters into the categories of task-oriented (or instrumental) activities, socioemotional (or relationship) activities, and power (or dominance) activities.
SYMLOG (System of Multiple Level of Observation of Groups): A system of collecting data that involves observing the behaviors of a working group and coding the observed interactions into a limited number of types of activity.
(Stangor, 2016, p. 37)
This is a general overview of the use of SYMLOG. The 12 coding categories each fall into one of four overall categories. Furthermore, six of the coding categories (numbers 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, and 12) are designed to measure socioemotional activity, whereas the other six measure task activity. At least two trained coders do the observation, which can result in reliable ratings of the group behaviors.
The coding categories used by SYMLOG are presented in Table 2.1. As you can see, the categories are very detailed, and as a result virtually any type of verbal statement or group behavior can be coded into one of them. By systematically coding and analyzing the activities that are occurring in the group, the researcher can study the dynamics within the group, and can see how the members relationships change over time. The results of the SYMLOG analysis are usually used in conjunction with a group sociogram, not only to provide a picture of who is interacting with whom in the group, but also to understand what kinds of interaction are occurring.
SYMLOG represents an important approach to understanding group behavior, because it can be used to summarize the complicated interpersonal interactions that occur in a working group. Although the technique is difficult to use properly because it requires extensively trained interviewers, it has nevertheless been an important empirical approach for learning about relationships among the members of working groups.
(Stangor, 2016, p. 38)
Reference
Stagnor, C. (2016). Social Groups in Action and Interaction (2nd ed.) Florence, KY: Taylor & Francis.
