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Personal Choice and Social Constraint in Close Relationships: Applications of Network Analysis

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Friendship and Social Interaction

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Social Psychology ((SSSOC))

Abstract

Social psychologists have long subscribed to the notion that individuals are as active in constructing their environment as they are reactive and defined by it. Lewin (1935,1951), for example, understood behavior to be a function of the person and environment or life space, that is, B = f(PE). The life space was defined rather broadly as the totality of mutually interdependent and coexisting psychological, social, and physical facts that influence both thought and behavior (cf. Lewin, 1951). The concept of social network provides a means of specifying the structure and content of one aspect of the life space, the social environment. The investigation of social networks suggests a level of analysis distinct from the individual or dyadic levels of analysis that link the causes of behavior to personal characteristics or characteristics of specific relationships.

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Authors
  1. Robert M. Milardo
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Old Dominion University, 23508, Norfolk, Virginia, USA

    Valerian J. Derlega  & Barbara A. Winstead  & 

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© 1986 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

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Milardo, R.M. (1986). Personal Choice and Social Constraint in Close Relationships: Applications of Network Analysis. In: Derlega, V.J., Winstead, B.A. (eds) Friendship and Social Interaction. Springer Series in Social Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4880-4_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4880-4_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-9344-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-4880-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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