Nursing Research

1. SOCIO-METRIC SCALES
OF EVALUATION
Prof.(Dr.) Virendra Singh Choudhary

2. Meaning-
 Jacob Levy Monero coined the term
“SOCIOMETRY” and conducted the first
long –range sociometric study from 1932-
38 at the New York state Training School
for Girls in Husdon, New York.
 The word socio-metry comes from the
Latin “Socius” meaning social and the
Latin “metrum” meaning measure.

3.  Socio-metry is a way
of measuring the
degree of relatedness
among people.

4. Definition-
 Literally, Sociometry means the
measurement of social groups.
 Socio-metry is-
“ The quantitative study of interpersonal
relationships in populations, especially the
study and measurement of preferences.”

5. Definition-(…contd)
 Socio-metry is a way of measuring the
degree of relatedness among people.
Measurement of relatedness can be useful
not only in the assessment of behaviour
within groups, but also for interventions to
bring about positive change and for
determining the extent of change.

6. Definition-(…contd)
 Monero himself defined socio-metry as-
“the mathematical study of psychological
properties of populations, the experimental
technique of and the results obtained by
application of quantitative methods.”
(Monero- 1953)

7. Definition-(…contd)
 Socio-metry is concerned with the
measurement of social relationships within
groups and its principle tool is the
SOCIOGRAM.
 Socio-metry is based on the fact that
people make choices in inter-personal
relationships.

8. Definition-(…contd)
 Whenever people
gather, they make
choices-where to sit
or stand, choices
about who is
perceived as friendly
and who not, who is
central to the group,
who rejected, who is
isolated.

9. Socio-metric Criteria-
 The criterion may be subjective, such as
an intuitive feeling of liking or disliking a
person on first impression.
 The criterion may be more objective and
conscious, such as knowing that a person
does or does not have certain skills
needed for the group task.

10. Presentation of Socio-metric data-
 Can be presented in the form of-
1) Socio-gram.
2) Socio-matrix.
3) Socio-metric indices.

11. Socio-gram-
 A drawing, like a map,
of those networks is
called a socio-gram.
In this, a map is
made.

12. Socio-gram
B
C
E
D A H
I
F G J
K

13. Socio-gram-(…contd)
* Such a student is
called
SOCIOMETRIC
STAR and there are
other typical
structures such as “
mutual pairs”,
“triangles” and
“chains”. It may be
possible to identify an
“isolet”, who don’t
make any choices
himself or who is not
chosen by anyone.

14. An example of Socio-gram-

15. Socio-matrix-
 The data for the socio-
gram may also be
displayed as a table or
matrix of each person’s
choices. Such a table is
called a socio-matrix.

16. Socio-matrix-(…contd)
 For example, we want to know how much
inter-personal trust exists within a small
group of 6 members. Let’s call the group
members- Aarti, Mamta, Shikha, Vandana,
Shruti, Sakshi. We will use the symbols-
 “+” to indicate High trust.
 “O” to indicate Moderate trust.
 “-“ to indicate Distrust/Conflict.

17. Socio-matrix-(…contd)
Aarti Mamta Shikha Vanda
na
Shruti Sakshi
Aarti + - O + O
Mamta O - + + O
Shikha - O + + +
Vanda
na
O + - O O
Shruti + + O + O
Sakshi + + O O +

18. Examples of Socio-matrix-

19. Socio-metric indices-
 These can be of use when comparing the
same individual in a variety of groups.
 Socio-metric indices reduce the great
amount of visual detail in a socio- gram
into a relatively simple numerical values
that allows comparison.

20. Socio-metric indices-(…contd)
 Individual choice status-CSi = No. of persons
choosing i
------------------------------
N-1
 Individual Rejection status-RSi = No. of persons
rejecting i
----------------------------
N-1

21. Socio-metric indices-(…contd)
 Group Cohesions, Co = No. of mutual
pairs
------------------------
Possible no. of
mutual pairs
 The use of indices may give the
impression that socio-metry is an “ exact
science”.
 Reliability and Validity is questionable.

22. Criterion Selection-
 The selection of the
appropriate criterion
makes or breaks the
socio-metric intervention.
 A good criterion should
present a meaningful
choice to the person in
as simple a format as
possible.

23. Principles of criterion selection-
 The criterion should be as simply stated
and as straight forward as possible.
 The respondants should have some actual
experience in reference to the criterion.
 The criterion should be specific rather than
general or vague. Vaguely defined criteria
evoke vague responses.

24. Principles of criterion selection-
(…contd)
 When possible, the criterion should be
actual rather than hypothetical.
 A criterion is more powerful if it is one that
has a potential for being acted upon.

25. Advantages of Socio-gram-
 Socio-grams show relation from the
group members point of view.
 Choices are uninfluenced by the teacher/
experimenter.
 Socio-grams can show sub-grouping in
classes.

26. Advantages of Socio-gram-
(…contd)
 Socio-grams are easy to collect either in
writing or verbally.
 It helps the teacher to evaluate
affective/conative skills of the students.

27. Disadvantages-
 Many teachers may find the notion
ethically unacceptable to use with
students.
 Intermediate relationships are not
indicated, giving a rather ’Black and
white’ picture of the relationships in the
groups.

28. Disadvantages-(…contd)
 The actual design of the sociogram
depends as much as on artistic talent as
on rational rules, so that 2 sociograms
from the same data may give quite
different impressions.
 Also, for groups of more than 15, socio-
grams become impossibly complex.

29. Growing social relations-

30. Conclusion-
 A Socio-gram is an important tool for
teachers. Socio-gram is the chart used to
actually apply socio-metry in the
classroom. It charts the interrelationships
within a group.
 Its purpose is to discover group structures
and the relation of any one person to the
group as a whole.

31. References-
 The Principles and Practice of Nurse Education,
FRANCIS M. QUINN, 2nd edition; Page No.89- 91.
 Teaching and Learning in Schools of Nursing, Principles
and Methods; Loretta E Heidgerken 3rd eition.
 Socio-metry;from WikEd.
 The Hoop and the Tree. Introduction to Scio-metry—
Chis Hoffman.
 SpringerLink- Journal Article- Ronald J. Prinz, Gary
Swan, Diane Liebert, Seldon Weintraub and John M.
Neale.
 www.googles.com

32. Thank You