Mapping the connectedness of social psychology: A social

network approach

Kevin LanningFred Rhodewalt Social Psychology Winter Conference

Park City, UTJanuary 2015

Note: Slides preceded by # were not included in the presentation due to time constraints.

Updated analyses and a more detailed report are available from lanning@cal.berkeley.edu

Some heterogeneous starting points

The trend towards team science

Our evolved nature in communities

The incompleteness of keywords…& arbitrariness in the assignment of papers to Associate Editors and Reviewers

…& inadequacy of self-reports of expertise

The artificiality of, and limits imposed by,the “organizational model” of academicunits that shapes our (and student) lives

The power of empiricism

The availability of new toolsfor network analysis

The reciprocal relevance of social psychology and network science

HistoricalLewin, Heider, Milgram, …

StructuralA language for the study of communities

Networks inform one of the critical issues of our time: the study of inequality

Who should buy/sell insurance?

Who do we cite?

Interpreting citation networksCitations

Dyadic, directed acts

Occur within context

Multiple levels of analysis

Level of analysis Concept / parameter Relevance / interpretation

Network (dynamic) Preferential attachmentDevelopmental trajectories of topics, scholars

Network (static) Giant component, density Connectedness of a research area

Community Modules, cliques Topics, subdisciplines, categories

Path Diameter, path length Distance and proximity of nodes…Node: Author, paper, journal, department (In)degree, centrality Forms of influence, impact, eminence

Analyzing citation networks

A descriptive, large data technique

Nodes: Paper vs author vs journal vs … • Ambiguity of names (M Zuckerman, J Block, etc)

• Here, primarily use paper/doi as identifier

Edges: Many possible sources• Here, bibliographic couplings

Two types of networks• Source -> Reference

• The citation network (directed, biphasic, large, sparse)

… can be reduced to

• Source <-> Source• A structural network (undirected, single mode, small, dense)

Overview of analyses

Datasets• JPSP 2014

• (JPSP 1981)

• ((Annual Review chapters on personality))

• ((SPSSI papers))

• (((Scholar network at a public university in the southeast)))

Tools (open source)• Gephi for network articulation & visualization

• Lada Adamic’s MOOC on SNA

• Cfinder for complex representation of communities

JPSP and the structure of social/personality psychology

Three sections of JPSP

Attitudes and Social Cognition

Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes

Personality Processes and Individual Differences

Is this partitioning valid?

Weak form of hypothesis

• Papers are “closer” within than they are between sections

Strong form of hypothesis

• An optimal partitioning of the space

• Natural, discrete categories of scholarly inquiry

Properties of the JPSP 2014 -> reference citation networkBiphasic, directed

6159 Nodes• 118 articles• 10024 citations

• 7248 with doi• 6041 unique references

(cited in 1 or more papers)

7248 Edges• Sparse: Density rounds to 0 (7248/(6159 * 6158))

Average path = 3.7, diameter is 6 (undirected)

All articles are linked in a giant component

Papers most frequently cited in JPSP 2014

cites reference

19 Preacher, K. J. Hayes, A. F. (2008). … indirect effects in ... mediator models. BRM, 40, 879-891.

14 Buhrmester, M. Kwang, T. Gosling, S. D. (2011). Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Pers. Psych Sci, 6, 3-5.

13 Blanz, M. (1999). Accessibility & fit determine salience of social categoriz. EJ Social Psych, 29, 43-74

10 Baumeister, R. F. Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: attachments … Psych Bull, 117, 497-529.

10 Altemeyer, B. (1998). The other “authoritarian personality”. In M. Zanna (Ed.), Adv in Exper. Soc Psy. .

10 Simmons, J. P. Nelson, L. D. Simonsohn, U. (2011). False-positive psychology Psych Sci, 22, 1359-66.

9Franco, F. M. Maass, A. (1999). Intentional control over prejudice: When the choice of the measure matters. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 469-477.

9 Watson, D. Clark, L. A. Tellegen, A. (1988). The PANAS Scales. JPSP, 54, 1063-1070.

8 Preacher, K. J. Hayes, A. F. (2004). SPSS and SAS … mediation models, BRM, 36, 717-731.

8 Shiner, R. Caspi, A. Goldberg, L. R. (2007). The power of personality. Pers. on Psych Sci, 2, 313-345.

Properties of the JPSP <-> JPSP structural networkSingle mode, undirected, small

118 Nodes (articles)

1421 Edges

Edges are weighted by number of common citations

The network is dense

The average paper is directly linked to 24 others (20.6% of all possible links)

Average path is 1.9, diameter is 4

Connections within and across JPSP sectionsJPSP Section(s) Papers

(nodes)Edges Density Density between

sections

Attitudes 30 170 39.1% --

Attitudes & Interpersonal 73 686 26.1 21.1

Attitudes & Personality 75 605 21.8 14.4

Interpersonal 43 243 26.9 --

Interpersonal & Personality

88 784 20.5 15.6

Personality 45 241 24.3 --

All sections 118 1421 20.6 16.8

What counts as a good ‘visualization’? (Tufte)

On graph visualizationsin Gephi

• A powerful tool for conveyingnetwork structure

• But easily manipulable,and no clearcut rulesfor ideal representations

• Nodes ranked by degree (3 depictions)

• linear vs nonlinear spline, labels vs none

Different forms of network centrality

Degree and weighted degree: Number of direct links, possibly weighted by total shared cites

PR (Page Rank, Eigenvector Centrality): Recursive measures in which the importance of a paper is dependent upon the importance of the papers which refer to it

BC (Betweenness Centrality): Extent to which a node bridges different areas of scholarship, introduces work to a new audience, etc.

Nodes graded by Betweenness, Weighted degree, and (unweighted) PageRank

Most central papers in JPSP on 3 metrics

Id source.title BC WD PR

Rauthmann_J.p.107.677 The Situational Eight DIAMONDS 1 3 1

Gebauer_J.p.107.1064 Cross-cultural variations in Big Five r religiosity 2 2 7

Wakslak_C.a.107.41 Using abstract language signals power. 3 11 2

Barasch_A.a.107.393 Selfish or selfless? On the signal value of emotion in altruism 4 18 9

McClure_M.i.106.89 …attachment anxiety hurts relational opportunities. 5 7 4

Frimer_J.i.106.790 Moral actor, selfish agent. 8 13 5

Dunning_D.i.107.122 Trust at 0 acquaintance: respect not expectation of reward. 9 9 3

Lemay_Jr._E.i.106.37Diminishing self-disclosure to maintain security in partners' care. 16 1 8

Lemay_Jr._E.i.107.638Accuracy/bias in self-perceived responsiveness -> security in romantic rs. 18 5 22

Hui_C.i.106.546When relationship commitment fails to promote partners' interests. 24 3 16

The challenge of communities

Partitioning a continuous universeThree approaches

• A priori• Three JPSP areas

• Top down (divisive)• Modularity assessment of whole graph

• All inclusive, too Procrustean

• Bottom up (agglomerative)• Begin with cliques

• May allow for overlapping categories

• Not all inclusive, may be too selective

Modularity analyses of JPSP 2014

• Results not robust

• A 7 community solution is representative• 2 primarily attitudes

• 2 primarily interpersonal

• 1 personality

• 2 mixed

Community Att Int Pers

I 7 2 0

II 10 2 1

III 0 16 2

IV 4 10 3

V 0 2 26

VI 4 2 3

VII 5 9 10

#Modularity: Clusters I & II (attitudes)

• Defaults to 7 communities(10 attitudes, 2 interpersonal, 1 personality)

Malaviya_P.a.106.1Do hedonic motives moderate regulatory f

Zou_X.a.106.183In pursuit of progress: Promotion motiva

Schumann_K.i.107.432Religious magnanimity: Reminding people

Leander_N.a.107.229Indifferent reactions: Regulatory respon

Zhang_Y.a.107.965Embodied motivation: Using a goal system

Goldenberg_A.a.107.581 How group-based emotions are shaped by c

Moscatelli_S.a.107.248 Badly off or better off than them? The i

Malka_A.p.106.1031 Do needs for security and certainty pred

Campbell_T.a.107.809 Solution aversion: On the relation betwe

Topolinski_S.a.106.885 Oral approach?avoidance: Affective conse

Krpan_D.a.107.978 Too close for comfort: Stimulus valence

Buechel_E.a.106.20 More intense experiences, less intense f

Hodges_B.i.106.218 Speaking from ignorance: Not agreeing wi

(Includes 7 papers in attitudes, 2 in interpersonal)

Barasch_A.a.107.393Selfish or selfless? On the signal value

Jung_M.a.107.414Paying more when paying for others.

Yeager_D.a.107.559Boring but important: A self-transcenden

Clark_C.a.106.501Free to punish: A motivated account of f

Leith_S.a.107.597Changing theories of change: Strategic s

Schumann_K.i.107.475 Addressing the empathy deficit: Beliefs

Rheinschmidt_M.i.107.101 Social class and academic achievement in

Hag�_S.a.107.994 Too young to correct: A developmental te

Yeager_D.a.106.867 The far-reaching effects of believing pe

#Modularity: Clusters III & IV (interpersonal)

• Defaults to 7 communities

(4 attitudes, 10 interpersonal, 3 personality)

Wakslak_C.a.107.41Using abstract language signals power.

Thomas_K.i.107.657The psychology of coordination and commo

Friesen_J.i.106.590Seeking structure in social organization

Kross_E.p.106.304Self-talk as a regulatory mechanism: How

Halevy_N.i.106.398How decisions happen: Focal points and b

Acar-Burkay_S.p.107.719 Trusting others: The polarization effect

Sweeny_K.p.106.1015 Mapping individual differences in the ex

Claypool_H.i.106.571 Social exclusion and stereotyping: Why a

Yogeeswaran_K.i.106.772 The devil is in the details: Abstract ve

Hsee_C.a.106.699 Approach aversion: Negative hedonic reac

Critcher_C.i.107.454 The involuntary excluder effect: Those i

Campbell_T.i.106.272 Too much experience: A desensitization b

Uskul_A.i.106.752 Responses to social exclusion in cultura

Yan_D.a.106.514 Future events are far away: Exploring th

Mittal_C.i.107.621 Sense of control under uncertainty depen

Case_C.i.107.1033 Divide and conquer: When and why leaders

Holtgraves_T.a.107.219 Interpreting uncertainty terms.

(Includes 16 interpersonal, 2 personality)

McClure_M.i.106.89Anxiety doesn?t become you: How attachme

Lemay_Jr._E.i.106.37Diminishing self-disclosure to maintain

Marigold_D.i.107.56You can?t always give what you want: The

Lemay_Jr._E.i.107.638

Accuracy and bias in self-perceptions of

Cortes_K.i.106.380Self-regulating the effortful ?social do

Hui_C.i.106.546 The Manhattan effect: When relationship

Wiltermuth_S.p.107.925 ?I?d only let you down?: Guilt proneness

Nelissen_R.i.106.257 Relational utility as a moderator of gui

VanderDrift_L.i.106.927 Relational consequences of personal goal

Eastwick_P.i.106.728 Relational mate value: Consensus and uni

West_T.i.107.81 A little similarity goes a long way: The

Eastwick_P.i.106.429 Is a meta-analysis a foundation, or just

Forest_A.i.107.1013 Discount and disengage: How chronic nega

Overall_N.i.106.235 Attachment anxiety and reactions to rela

Solomon_B.p.107.516 You are so beautiful...to me: Seeing bey

Meltzer_A.i.106.418 Sex differences in the implications of p

West_T.i.107.825 Anxiety perseverance in intergroup inter

Meltzer_A.i.106.435 Men still value physical attractiveness

#Modularity: Cluster V (personality)

• Defaults to 7 communities

Includes 2 interpersonal, 26 personality)

Rauthmann_J.p.107.677 The Situational Eight DIAMONDS: A taxono Foschi_R.p.106.339 Does sociability predict civic involveme

Gebauer_J.p.107.1064 Cross-cultural variations in Big Five re Hilbig_B.p.107.529 Personality and prosocial behavior: Link

Dittmar_H.p.107.879 The relationship between materialism and Wang_S.i.107.864 Psychological well-being and job stress

Solomon_B.p.106.978 Why do personality traits predict divorc Pauletti_R.p.106.843 Influences of gender identity on childre

Cohen_T.p.107.943 Moral character in the workplace. Bardi_A.p.106.131 Value stability and change during self-c

Mund_M.p.107.352 Treating personality-relationship transaVan_den_Akker_A.p.107.736 Mean-level personality development acros

Manczak_E.p.106.169 Regulatory focus in the life story: Prev Israel_S.p.106.484 Translating personality psychology to he

B�langer_J.p.107.494 The psychology of martyrdom: Making the Ng_W.p.107.326 What matters to the rich and the poor? S

Callan_M.p.107.142 Making sense of misfortune: Deservingnes Specht_J.p.107.540 On the consistency of personality types

Jeronimus_B.p.107.751 Mutual reinforcement between neuroticism Schriber_R.p.106.112 Personality and self-insight in individu

Human_L.p.106.286 To thine own self be true: Psychological Colonnesi_C.p.106.624 Positive and negative expressions of shy

Church_A.p.106.997 A four-culture study of self-enhancement Major_J.p.106.638 Linear and nonlinear associations betwee

Saucier_G.p.107.199 Human attribute concepts: Relative ubiqu Luhmann_M.p.107.163 Honey, I got fired! A longitudinal dyadi

Ku_L.p.106.803 To have or to learn? The effects of mate Nadler_A.i.106.58 Helping them stay where they are: Status

#Modularity: Clusters VI and VII (mixed)

• Defaults to 7 communities(5 attitudes, 9 interpersonal, 10 personality)

Frimer_J.i.106.790 Moral actor, selfish agent.Dunning_D.i.107.122 Trust at zero acquaintance: More a matteKoopmann-Holm_B.p.107.1092 Focusing on the negative: Cultural diffe

Landau_M.a.106.679 The college journey and academic engagemGoldstein_N.i.106.941 Perceived perspective taking: When otherSullivan_D.a.107.767 The dramaturgical perspective in relatio

Przybylski_A.p.106.441 Competence-impeding electronic games and

Kogan_A.p.107.1051 Vagal activity is quadratically related

de_Melo_C.i.106.73 Reading people?s minds from emotion expr

Orehek_E.i.107.265 Interdependent self-construals mitigate

DeWall_C.p.107.339 Explaining the relationship between reli

Lambert_A.a.106.655 Toward a greater understanding of the em

Peer_E.a.106.202 ?I cheated, but only a little?: Partial

Swann_Jr._W.i.106.713 Contemplating the ultimate sacrifice: Id

Mojzisch_A.i.106.961 The consistency principle in interperson

Birnbaum_G.p.106.822 When sex goes wrong: A behavioral system

Morris_K.p.107.181 Trio of terror (pregnancy, menstruation,

Kesebir_P.p.106.610 A quiet ego quiets death anxiety: Humili

Sellier_A.a.107.791 So what if the clock strikes? Scheduling

Gramzow_R.p.106.458 Boasts are a boost: Achievement prime se

Goff_P.i.106.526 The essence of innocence: Consequences o

Swann_Jr._W.i.106.912 What makes a group worth dying for? Iden

Goodwin_G.p.106.148 Moral character predominates in person p

Hull_J.p.107.300 A longitudinal study of risk-glorifying

(Includes 4 attitudes, 2 interpersonal, 3 personality)

Ratner_K.a.106.897 Visualizing minimal ingroup and outgroup

Wildschut_T.i.107.844 Collective nostalgia: A group-level emot

Critcher_C.a.106.359 If he can do it, so can they: Exposure t

Kawakami_K.a.107.1 An eye for the I: Preferential attention

Steiger_A.p.106.325 Low and decreasing self-esteem during ad

Klauer_K.a.107.21 How malleable is categorization by race?

Chung_J.p.106.469 Continuity and change in self-esteem dur

Mannes_A.i.107.276 The wisdom of select crowds.

Koenig_A.p.107.371 Evidence for the social role theory of s

A complex network view (Palla et al, 2005)

Communities as cliques• Each node is linked to

at least k other nodes• Family resemblance

Nodes (papers) may belong to multiple communities

Overlapping communities also constitute a network

• Multiple levels of categorization

Open source software at Cfinder.org

#Applying Cfinder

• Explore thresholds for filtering data• Here, minimum edge weight of 2

• Investigate network structure for various values of k• Here, k > = 5

• Communities are groups in which each paper is connectedby at least 2 common citations to at least 4 other papers within the community• Here, 8 communities in two separate components

Cfinder

Cinder

#Attitude II -> 3 k-cliques (Includes 7 papers in attitudes, 2 in interpersonal)

Jung_M.a.107.414

Paying more when paying for others. 5

Clark_C.a.106.501

Free to punish: A motivated account of f 5

Barasch_A.a.107.393

Selfish or selfless? On the signal value 5,6

Yeager_D.a.107.559

Boring but important: A self-transcenden 5,7

Schumann_K.i.107.475 Addressing the empathy deficit: Beliefs 6,7

Yeager_D.a.106.867 The far-reaching effects of believing pe 7

Rheinschmidt_M.i.107.101 Social class and academic achievement in 7

Leith_S.a.107.597

Changing theories of change: Strategic s 7

Hag�_S.a.107.994 Too young to correct: A developmental te

A second JPSP dataset

• JPSP 1981• First year of three areas

• Assess density within, between sections• Compare with 2014

• Prospective analyses• Which measures of centrality are most important?

• Do 1981 parameters of centrality, clique membership predict citations 1982 -> 2014?

• Inspect community structure of 1981 papers

#Properties of the JPSP 1981 -> reference citation network• JPSP1981 -> reference network

• Biphasic, directed• 2879/6153 references have doi• 2418 Nodes (206 articles, 2212 unique references)

• 2879 Edges (sparse: density rounds to 0) • Average path = 7.6, diameter is 18 (undirected)• 2226 articles (92% linked in a giant component

• JPSP1981 <-> JPSP1981 network• Single-mode, undirected• 206 nodes, 855 edges (density = 4%)• 183 (88%) of nodes linked in a giant component • Average path = 3.1, diameter is 8

Connections within and across JPSP sectionsJPSP Section(s) Papers

(nodes)Edges Density Density

between sections

Density Density between sections

1981 2014

Attitudes 65 239 11.50% 39.1% --

Attitudes & Interpersonal

102 305 5.92.0 26.1 21.1

Attitudes & Personality

169 716 53.4 21.8 14.4

Interpersonal 37 19 2.9 26.9 --

Interpersonal & Personality

141 337 3.41.9 20.5 15.6

Personality 104 245 4.6 24.3 --

All sections 206 855 4 2.7 20.6 16.8

#Most central papers – JPSP 1981Id source.title BC WD PR cites

Kuhl_J.p.40.155 Motivational and functional helplessness: The mode 1 6 6 159

Tunnell_G.p.40.1126 Sex role and cognitive schemata: Person perception 2 4 3 1

Eagly_A.p.40.384 Sex differences in conformity: Surveillance by the 3 8 10 45

Romer_D.p.41.562 A person-situation causal analysis of self-reports 4 24 14 7

Polivy_J.p.41.803 On the induction of emotion in the laboratory: Dis 5 25 15 56

Wilson_T.a.40.53 Awareness and self-perception: Verbal reports on i 7 20 5 0

Harvey_J.p.40.346 How fundamental is "the fundamental attribution er 9 12 4 35

Yarkin_K.a.41.243 Cognitive sets, attribution, and social interactio 10 9 1 11

Fazio_R.a.41.232 Self-perceptions following social interaction. 13 9 2 140

Major_B.p.41.988 A different perspective on androgyny: Evaluations 21 1 20 11

Harrington_D.p.41.744 Creativity, masculinity, femininity, and three mod 55 2 32 14

Heilbrun_A.p.41.1106 Gender differences in the functional linkage betwe 64 5 40 15

Lubinski_D.p.40.722 The relationship between androgyny and subjective 113 3 63 46

#Most cited papers from JPSP 1981 (1981 -> present)

Id source.title BC WD PR cites

Bandura_A.p.41.586Cultivating competence, self-efficacy, and intrinsic interest through proximal self-motivation. 134 150 168 461

Petty_R.a.41.847Personal involvement as a determinant of argument-based persuasion. 30 18 26 436

Kinder_D.a.40.414Prejudice and politics: Symbolic racism versus racial threats to the good life. 145 184 190 417

Cheek_J.p.41.330 Shyness and sociability. 26 83 44 406

Wong_P.a.40.650When people ask "why" questions, and the heuristics of attributional search. 23 11 11 375

Sternberg_R.a.41.37 People's conceptions of intelligence. 145 184 190 301

Brewer_M.a.41.656 Perceptions of the elderly: Stereotypes as prototypes. 130 88 121 290

Batson_C.i.40.290 Is empathic emotion a source of altruistic motivation? 38 83 85 235

Hoffman_M.p.40.121 Is altruism part of human nature? 25 76 54 191

Kuhl_J.p.40.155Motivational and functional helplessness: The moderating effect of state versus action orientation. 1 6 6 159

Little relationship between 1981 centrality and subsequent cites

source.citedby

weighted.degree 0.11

betweenness.centrality 0.13

page.rank 0.12

ncliques 0.07

#Applying Cfinder to 1981 data

• Explore thresholds for filtering data• Here, minimum edge weight of 1 (unfiltered)

• Investigate network structure for various values of k• Here, k > = 8

• Communities are groups in which each paper is connectedby at least 1 common citations to at least 7 other papers within the community• Here, 7 communities in one component connecting 60 papers

#Communities 2 and 5

#Communities 5 and 6

#Communities 4 and 6

#Communities 1 and 6

#Comms4, 0, 1, 3

#Other datasets

Annual Review articles on personality• Author as the unit of analysis (Smith,J)

• 33 source papers published 1977-2012

Journal of Social Issues and Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy(journals of SPSSI/APA Division 9

• 855 source papers published 2001-2013• By citation (Smith,J 2006)

• By author (Smith,J)

Analyses of first authors only.

#Big data, small world:Personality in the Annual Review

Scope• 6,294 references by 2,803

unique authors• Of these, 219 self-cites

(3.5%) are excluded

Connectedness• All authors are connected,

and separated by no more than 5 degrees

• Average path is 3 Nodes and text are colored by community. Node size represents Eigenvector centrality.

Layout determined by Force Atlas 2 algorithm. All analyses and visualizations done in Gephi.

#Personality in the Annual Review: Most cited authors

115 authors with 5 or more cites

#Personality in the Annual review: Communities as constellations / The five factor paradigm

Between 12 and 15 communities are identified. One of the largest is anchored by source papers of Wiggins, Carson, Digman, and Ozer.

#Personality in the Annual review: Minnesota and Berkeley schools

In one analysis, the two largest communities

#Proximity and distance in citation networks

• Proximity may occur for several reasons; distance is less ambiguous• Closeness of Block and Mischel in the personality

space (right)

• Greatest distances among source papers• Parke (‘83, Social and Personality Development)

• -> Rorer (‘83, Personality Structure and Assessment)

• -> Butcher (‘96, Personality: Individual Differences and Clinical Assessment).

#Analyses of SPSSI journals

• All papers published in JSI, ASAP from 2001-2013.

• N sources = 855• 38854 references(45.4 per source)

• - 2,042 self-references (5.3%)• - 3,198 (8.2%) unusable: references to news articles,

government institutes, or without a date____________________________

• 33,615 usable citations (86.5%)• 24,263 unique papers• 14,702 unique first authors

#The SPSSI author

network:Most cited

Includes 68 authors with 20 or more

citations. Nodes ranked by eigenvector

centrality

#SPSSI citation network: Connectedness

• Of the 24,263 papers, 24,075 (99.2%) are linked in a single giant component• Papers are separated by an

average of 4.2 links

The SPSSI authornetwork: Allport and Lewin communities compared

Lewin community includes authors with 5 or more cites; Allport includes authors with 13+ cites. Nodes ranked by eigenvector centrality

#(How) has ASAP changed SPSSI?

Total JSI ASAPonly ASAP

unique authors 696 491 233 205unique cited 14568 11704 4848 2864unique scholars (nodes) 14702 11778 4942 2924

The communities of departments bear little resemblance to the existing colleges of the university

#A network of departments:

Global and clique-based perspectives

#Summary, concluding thoughts

Communities• Discrete clusters are artificial• A valid structure of social psychology will require

some more data, and much more thought

Impact• Beyond great persons• Different measures of centrality have distinct interpretations

Connectedness• To see small worlds, you need big data

Distance• May be more interpretable than proximity

Obsolescence• Bigger data and much more sophisticated methods lie ahead