Scientific article
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English

Social network analysis in social psychological ressearch (1990–2020): A scoping review

Published inBritish journal of social psychology, vol. 64, no. 1
First online date2025-01-10
Abstract

Over the last two decades, Social Network Analysis (SNA)has become a standard tool in various social science disci-plines. In social psychology, however, the use of SNA meth-odology remains scarce. This research identifies gaps inSNA use in Social Psychology and offers pathways for itsfurther development. It reviews all empirical papers usingSNA published in high-ranking social psychology journalsover the last three decades. Findings reveal that SNA hasbeen used across striking diversity of fields and subdomainscentral to the discipline, confirming its relevance for anyfield in Social Psychology in which the role of interpersonalor intergroup relationships is central to understand psy-chological and behavioural outcomes. However, the use ofSNA in Social Psychology has been mostly limited to non-experimental and non-longitudinal studies, using studentsamples and with a focus on basic measurements of networkstructures such as density and centrality. The contributionsof SNA to the understanding of psychosocial mechanismshave therefore remained modest. We propose several strate-gies by which such gaps can be filled in future research andthe full potential of SNA for social psychology realized.

Keywords
  • Bibliometrics
  • Interpersonal relationships
  • Scoping review
  • Social network analysis
  • Social Psychology
Research groups
Citation (ISO format)
MEHRPOUR, Anahita, WIDMER, Eric, STAERKLE, Christian. Social network analysis in social psychological ressearch (1990–2020): A scoping review. In: British journal of social psychology, 2025, vol. 64, n° 1. doi: 10.1111/bjso.12833
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Article (Published version)
Identifiers
Journal ISSN0144-6665
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