Network Analysis on Attitudes: A Brief Tutorial. (July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dalege, Jonas; Borsboom, Denny; van Harreveld, Frenk; van der Maas, Han L. J.
• Is Part Of: Social psychological & personality science. Volume 8:Number 5(2017)
• Page Start: 528
• Page End: 537
• Publication Date: 2017-07
• Subjects: attitudes -- network analysis -- network estimation -- network simulation -- network theory; Personality -- Periodicals; Social psychology -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 155.2
• DOI: 10.1177/1948550617709827
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1948-5506

Abstract

In this article, we provide a brief tutorial on the estimation, analysis, and simulation on attitude networks using the programming language R. We first discuss what a network is and subsequently show how one can estimate a regularized network on typical attitude data. For this, we use open-access data on the attitudes toward Barack Obama during the 2012 American presidential election. Second, we show how one can calculate standard network measures such as community structure, centrality, and connectivity on this estimated attitude network. Third, we show how one can simulate from an estimated attitude network to derive predictions from attitude networks. By this, we highlight that network theory provides a framework for both testing and developing formalized hypotheses on attitudes and related core social psychological constructs.