Social Networks

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST) (Carstensen, 1992, 1993) accounts for lifespan changes in human social networks and for the motivations which underlie those changes. SST is applied in this research with 256 prison inmates and non-inmates, ages 18–84, from Mississippi, Kansas, and New Mexico. Two research questions sought to identify (a) whether inmate networks change in size, and (b) whether overall closeness within an inmate's network changes over the adult years. Results indicate that older inmates, much like older non-inmates, have few peripheral partners, are buffered from the wider population of prisoners, and interact within a small group of very close partners. Although older inmates are not completely isolated, they do maintain fewer network partners as age increases, like their non-incarcerated counterparts, and overall are as emotionally close to network members as non-inmates.

The paper presents a simulation model for social systems which is based on individual interactions. A social organization can be considered as an intelligent information processing system. It appears that social systems involve a duality in their functioning, depending on whether the information exchanged between system components are rational or relational. Applying this point of view to an employment agency,

ABSTRACT New movements in project management are pushing project teams to hunt down contacts well outside their regular networks, to tackle problems encountered throughout project rollout. This raises the issue of initiating cooperation with someone unknown—that is, harnessing weak ties to tap into resources well outside the comfort zone. Our investigations into polar expedition projects has led us to develop the notion of a potentially cooperative weak tie, converging Granovetter's approach with a synthesis about cooperation differentiating identity-sense and utilitarian mechanisms. We conclude that a weak tie can initiate a cooperation only if it includes one of these two sources of cooperation.

An interpersonal organization destinations assumes vital part for spreading the data and impact as entire world close by.. There is something fundamental to discover little arrangement of compelling individuals in an interpersonal organization to such an extent that focusing on them at first. It will increase the spread of the impact however the issue is that to finding the most persuasive hubs in organization. There is one Algorithm called as Greedy algorithm used for mining top-K influential nodes. It has two components: dividing the post of social network into several communities by taking into account information diffusion and selecting communities to find influential nodes by a dynamic programming. Using Location Based people group Greedy calculation is utilized to discover the influence node dependent on Location of the client and we can figure out the impact for specific Area. There is one more Serious issue in informal community is that there are such countless pernicious assaults spread by individuals and that vindictive substance are taken cover behind some appealing posts. i.e. viral showcasing strategies in the advancement of new items or posts like how much most fortunate today or what does your name implied or post which expresses the giving you iphone in lesser prize or giving them free examples of the item and so on.

... For example, EDMODO—the service used in the research discussed in this article—was released in 2009. ... EDMODO, a secure and free microblogging platform designed for use in educational contexts, was selected as a flexible service to use in the study. ...

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of recent developments of Information Technologies in Education (ITE), particularly in higher education, to answer students and teacher's needs, according to the real time rapidity characteristics of the process of learning and teaching. The internet, mobile computing, social networks and many other advances in human communications have become essential to promote and boost education, technology and industry [1]. In this sense, the learning and the teaching process have to take such developments into account. As a consequence the teaching profession is evolving from an emphasis on delivering information to an emphasis on creating learning environments [2]. Indeed, the new challenges related with the integration of ITE into all aspects of the learning process require revising the traditional educational paradigms that have been prevailed for last years. Thus, on the one hand, the theoretical framework of this paper is based on literature about information technologies, in general, and information technologies in higher education, in particular. On the other hand, the empirical framework reflects the best practices in this field used in the Polytechnic Institute of Guarda (IPG, Portugal). The results of the paper show that the Higher Education Institutions (HEI) are facing new challenges, not only to promote an adequate education in each field of study to the students, but, also, to develop them with skills and knowledge required to leverage information technology effectively to the workplace on firms.

In this chapter we present a parallel mixed method research design applied in the field of fertility research. Our project aims at generating a comprehensive understanding of the network effects on fertility intentions and behavior. These effects have attracted the interest of researchers in demography and family sociology over the last 20 years (Bongaarts and Watkins 1996; Kohler 2001; Kohler and Bühler 2001; Bernardi and Klärner 2014). The central question of our research is how intimate life-course decisions of individuals and couples about becoming parents are influenced by social interactions with parents, siblings, relatives, friends, but also with colleagues as well as more contingent encounters that constitute individuals’ social networks.

Current Sociology ✦ November 2009 ✦ Vol. 57(6): 888–907 © International Sociological Association SAGE (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC) DOI: 10.1177/0011392109342226 ... Composition, Structure and Meaning of Fertility-relevant Social Networks in Western ...

ABSTRACT On the basis of the analysis of qualitative interviews in Western Germany, it has been argued that personal relationships have a strong impact on individuals' family formation processes and childbearing intentions. Persons who influence individuals' childbearing choices were identified. Strong ties, such as among core family members (i.e., parents and siblings), are an important contributing factor, but the authors are also able to show that weak ties, such as those among colleagues and acquaintances, need to be considered when examining social influence on family formation processes. Apart from single network partners, influential groups of persons have been identified. Such groups serve as a comparative standard regarding the timing of having one's first child and subsequent children. Personal Relationships, Volume 20, Issue 3, pages 462–478, September 2013, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-6811.2012.01418.x/abstract.

This study investigates the links between community readiness and the social networks among participants in Communities That Care (CTC), community-based prevention coalitions. The coalitions targeted adolescent behavior problems through community risk factor assessments, prioritization of risk factors, and selection/implementation of corresponding evidence-based family, school, and community programs. Key leaders (n = 219) in 23 new CTC sites completed questionnaires focusing on community readiness to implement CTC and the respondents' personal, work, and social organization links to other key leaders in the community. Outside technical assistants also completed ratings of each community's readiness and early CTC functioning. Measures of network cohesion/integration were positively associated with readiness, while centralization was negatively associated. These results suggest that non-centralized networks in which ties between members are close and direct may be an indica...

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the role of social capital assessed in early adulthood in linking self-control in childhood with psychological and social functioning in middle age. Data collected at ages 8, 27, and 42 years were based on the Jyväskylä ...

This study examines the self-perceived speaking proficiency development of 204 learners of Japanese who studied abroad in Japan and analyzes connections between self-reported social network development, language use, and speaking development. Learners perceived that they gained the most in areas associated with the intermediate and advanced levels of the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Speaking Proficiency

ABSTRACT This study examines the self-perceived speaking proficiency development of 204 learners of Japanese who studied abroad in Japan and analyzes connections between self-reported social network development, language use, and speaking development. Learners perceived that they gained the most in areas associated with the intermediate and advanced levels of the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Speaking Proficiency Guidelines and the least in novice and superior-level abilities, largely because of a ceiling effect - learners were highly capable of novice-level tasks before study abroad and therefore had little to gain. Regression analysis indicated that self-reported pre-departure proficiency level, dispersion (number of social groups in which a learner participated), time spent in Japan, total time spent speaking Japanese, time spent speaking with native-speaker friends, and time spent speaking English with native speakers of Japanese predicted 44.6% of the variance in the perceived gains of study abroad in speaking proficiency. Self-reported pre-departure proficiency level and time spent speaking English with native speakers of Japanese were negative predictors.

ABSTRACT Second language (L2) gains during study abroad have been related to several variables including length of stay (Llanes, 2011), language use (Martinsen, Baker, Dewey, Bown, & Johnson, 2010), and social network development (Isabelli-García, 2006), among others. However, most studies have investigated only a few predictors in single study abroad programs. While these findings are helpful, larger scale studies are needed to better understand the variables that contribute to L2 gains across several different cultures and learner groups. The current study examines predictors of L2 gain of more than 100 native English speakers who participated in study abroad in Mexico, Spain, France, Egypt, Russia, and China. Participants were asked to complete an ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview at the beginning and end of their study abroad program. Participants were then divided into “gainers” and “non-gainers,” or those who did or did not make significant language gains from pre- to posttest. Their language gains from pre to posttest were compared to several predictors: personality (measured by the NEO Five-Factor Inventory), social networks (size, dispersion, density, etc.), intercultural sensitivity (measured by the Intercultural Development Inventory), amount of second language use, gender, and age. Results suggest that many students were able to make gains in language, in each of the programs, and that the strongest predictors of L2 gains were cultural sensitivity and social network variables.