The Statistical Analysis of Local Structure in Social Networks

We introduce the concept of a triad census of a digraph arid show how it can be used to enumerate various types of subgraph configurations. We give the basic probabilities needed for computing means and variances for a triad census under the U-MAN distribution for digraphs. These concepts are combined to provide a way of testing propositions about social structure using sociometric data. An application to 408 sociograms is given.