A study of a large sociogram II. Elimination of free parameters

A sociogram is a net in which individuals are nodes and the relations of interest are directed line segments connecting pairs of individuals. In the simplest case such a relation is characterized only by its presence or absence, e.g., “A chooses (or does not choose) B as a friend of a given rank order.” Mathematical praperties of such nets are of interest to the mathematical sociologist. If the number of individuals is very large, the properties of interest are statistical properties. Here it is shown that two parameters (whose values are obtainable directly from the data) are sufficient to describe certain features of sociograms of junior high schoal children.