INTERNATIONAL SUNBELT SOCIAL NETWORK CONFERENCE

Vancouver, Canada, 24 – 30 April 2006

www.insna.org

Presentation: Diana Jones

The Third Entity in the Dyad: the relationship

Exploration of reciprocal and non-reciprocal relationships

Abstract:  JL Moreno (1889 – 1974) valued the display of disturbances in relationships in order to free up the ‘actors’ to participate more fully in life. His explorations of the relationships between people and within groups led to his identifying and measuring the emotional flow of feeling between people. He called this tele. Tele either draws us toward people (attraction) or has us move away (rejection) or be neutral (not have a sense of). These are not linear measures. It is the enactments of these flows of feeling, which create, maintain, damage and evolve social networks. In mapping and exploring social networks, we are mapping the telic relationships.

Non-reciprocal relationships can be explored and mapped. This paper outlines the nature of tele, and indicates implications for social network analysis researchers, particularly where there is resistance to network explorations. Examples from a recent study of an established high functioning 16 person leadership team using UCINET, Graphplot and INFLOW are used to identify what is evident in non-reciprocal relationships and the affect and outcomes in working productively with this material. Implications for identifying research information and participant information are identified.

Keywords:  group problem solving, influence networks, interpersonal communication, negative relations, networks and behaviour, personal networks, social network analysis, strong and weak ties, tele