Connections,
Relationships,
and Networks
Prepared by
Jecevil C. Enso
Networks

Zeev Maoz (2011,7 and 38-39) in Network of
Nations, defines network as a set of units like
nerves, species, individuals, institutions or states,
and a rule that determines the “magnitude,
and/or direction of ties” that exist between any
two social entities or nodes.
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A network shows the relations that exist between
nodes.
Example:
A group of persons in a church organization may be
a member of different networks like a friendship
networks, neighborhood networks, or communitybased networks (Maoz, 2011, 40).

A set of networks that is made up of the same set
of nodes is known as hypernetwork or a
multiplex.
Friendship Network
Church Members
CommunityBased Network
Neighborhood
Network
Networks can be classified into
two types namely:
1. Relational Networks- Relational or one-mode networks are
characterized by rules that determine the presence, direction, and
extent of a relationship between any two units.
Example: neighborhood, friendship, alliance, or trade networks.
2. Affiliational Networks- refer to networks in which the rule
determines an affiliation of a unit with an event, organization, or
group.
Example: membership in a professional organization, national
membership in international organizations, or the distribution of the
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In understanding networks, its imperative to
understand the connections among social units
including the effects or outcomes associated with
these connections.
The “social units” referred to in this context are called
actors.
Actors are defined as “discrete individual or
collective social units”.
The term actor in this context connotes “a social unit
that is playing a role in a larger social system.
In social network analysis, actors are also called as
nodes and vertices.
Family
Network
Name
Gender
Age
Francis
Male
26
Jane
Female
22
Ernest
Male
42
James
Male
38
Table 1. The Family Network of Francis
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The table above is an example of ego
network.
Ego network is made up of a local actor or
node called ego and the nodes to whom the
ego is directly connected or linked.
These social units to whom the ego is
connected are called alters.
In the example, Francis is the ego while
Jane, Ernest , and James are the alters.
 The attributes or characteristics that give additional
information about the actors are called actor
attributes.
 An ego network also states the ties that exist
between the alters, this is known a first-order
egonet.
 A second-order egonet, shows the relations
between alters and other nodes in the network.
CONNECTIO
NS

Connection refers to the tie that links actors to one
another.

Examples of connections that can be used to show
ties among actors include behavioral interactions,
physical connections, association or affiliation,
evaluation of one person by another person, and
even formal relations.
 Connections between social units establishes a tie or link between
two actors or social units.
 Connections between two actors form a dyad.
 Dyad is the basic unit of social networks which is made up of a pair of
actors.
Examples of a dyad social network:
1. A child who wishes to form friendship ties with another child
2. A store manager consults with his assistant manager.
3. The Philippines wants to form an alliance with another country in the
Southeast Asian region.
When three actors are involved, it is called a triad.
Example of a tried includes the following:
1. A child who wishes to form friendship ties with two
other children
2. A store manager consults with his assistant
manager and store supervisor
3. The Philippines wants to form an alliance with two
other countries in the Southeast Asian region.
RELATIONSH
IP
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Relationship refers to the collection of ties among the actors in
a group.
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In social network analysis, relationship refers to “a connection of
ties of a specific kind measured on pairs of actors” from a
particular group of social entities. (Carolan ,2014,6)
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A single group of actors can have several different forms of
relationships.

Ex. If you want to study the connections of middle-aged friends,
one can also look into the connections of the parents of the
middle-aged friends.
Diagram. Example of a Diagraph of a Network
GRAPH
S
 A visual representation
can be used to
Francis
understand networks.
 A graph or diagraph is a “visual
representation of a social network, where
actors are represented as nodes or vertices
and the ties (connections) are represented as
lines” (Prell,2012, 9)
 The lines in the diagraph represent the ties or
connections while the arrowhead show the
direction of the connections.
James
Ernest
Jane
SOCIAL
 Social network is NETWORKS
made up of a “subset of nodes that
are organized through their ties with each other “
(Maoz 2011,38).
 Brian Carolan (2014,7) described social network as
a set of relations “made up of who knows whom,
who is a friend of whom, or who talks with whom”.
 Christina Prell (2012,8-9) defines social network as
“a set of relations that apply to a set of actors, as
well as any additional information on those actors
and relations”.
 Carolan (2014,7) identified three essential elements of
social networks. These include the following:
1. It is made up of a set of actors.
2. Every actor has a set of individual attributes.
3. It has a set of ties or connections that define at least
one relation among actors.
Social Network
Analysis
Social network analysis focuses on the “measurement of the
characteristics of linkages between ‘units’, whether individuals,
groups or organizations that form a defined population. (Holton
2008,50).
Analysis of social networks provide an increase understanding
of the “morphological patterns” within networks and it centers
on questions that explain why clusters and connections form
within social life, and analyzes “network complexities and
directional asymmetries in network links” (Holton 2008, 50).
Importance of Social
Networks
 Social network are important because there is a need to look
into how a group has made a decision on a particular issue.
 It is imperative to look into “how members of the group
influenced each other in order to make a decision, or
perhaps, not make a decision”.
 Social network analysis allows us to systematically show how
these interactions among group members led to a particular
outcome or decision (Carolan2014, 12-13).
Thank You!