Cloning headless frogs and other important matters: Conversation topics and network structure
Cloning headless frogs and other important matters: Conversation topics and network structure
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DOI：
10.1353/sof.2005.0001
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发表时间：
2004-12-01
期刊：
影响因子：
4.8
通讯作者：
Parigi, P
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bearman, P;Parigi, P
本文认为，人们谈论重要的事情，人们谈论什么，当他们讨论“重要的事情，”和会话主题的影响所产生的综合社会调查（GSS）网络工具的基础上的“重要的事情”的名称生成器的结果的解释。我们发现，有一半的人报告说什么都不谈，没有什么可谈的，而其他人没有人可以交谈。第二，我们发现人们倾向于谈论一些在许多人看来不重要的事情，例如克隆无头青蛙、少吃红肉等等，因此讨论网络的特征与工具性目的（例如找到工作或增强社会支持）之间的联系是脆弱的。最后，我们表明，有大量的主题改变依赖。这种依赖性表明，报告的许多实质性调查结果，例如关于网络构成方面的性别差异，可能是数据收集工具的人为产物。微观层面的topic-alter依赖关系反映了属性、主题和角色之间的宏观层面的关联。因此，GSS网络问题的跨文化比较是有问题的。提出了解决这些方法上的困境。
This article considers which people talk about important matters, what people talk about when they discuss "Important matters," and the implications of conversation topic for the interpretation of results arising from the General Social Survey (GSS) network instrument based on the "important matters" name generator. We show that half the people who report not talking about anything have nothing to talk about, whereas the others have no one to talk to. Secondly, we show that people tend to talk about things that many would regard as unimportant, for example, cloning of headless frogs, eating less red meat, and so on. Given this, the connection between characteristics of discussion networks and achievement of instrumental ends - for example, getting a job or enhancing social support - is tenuous. Finally, we show that there is substantial topic-alter dependency. This dependency suggests that many substantive findings reported about, for example, gender differences in network composition might be an artifact of the data-collection instrument. Micro-level topic-alter dependencies reflect macro-level associations between attributes, topics, and roles. Consequently, cross-cultural comparison of GSS network questions is problematic. Solutions for escaping these methodological dilemmas are proposed.