Definition
A network is an abstract model, in its simplest form including only a set of nodes, that represent the elements of a phenomenon (e.g., individuals, websites, genes), and a set of edges that connect pairs of nodes. Edges can represent any kind of relationship among nodes (e.g., social connections, web links, co-expression of genes). Therefore, a phenomenon can be analyzed as a network if it can be broken down to a set of elements and as a set of pairwise interactions among them. Network analysis refers to a wide array of techniques for analyzing networks. These techniques can answer questions regarding the global structure of a network (e.g., is the network a small-world?) and the importance of specific nodes and edges (e.g., which is the most centralnode?). In psychology, networks have been used recently to model psychological phenomena that...
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Costantini, G., Perugini, M. (2017). Network Analysis. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1332-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1332-1
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