Preparation
Before sociometric testing can be carried out, a set of supporting data must be prepared. This preliminary stage includes:
- A project in which all sociometric data you create is stored
- A group of participants taking part in the sociometric survey
- A study criterion (or sociometric question asked of each participant in the group)
- A sociometric study to which the participants' choices and the obtained results are linked
Starting SociometryPro and creating a project
The program allows you to create different projects and thus separate the data you use according to a chosen principle (for example, a project for School No. 20, for IBM, etc.). To create a new project:
- Start SociometryPro from the “SociometryPro by LeDiS Group” program group (via the Windows “Start” menu).
- If the program is running in demo mode (not registered), click OK in the following message:
- In the “SociometryPro” window that opens, create a new project using the “Create new project” toolbar button.
- Save the project using the “Save current project as…” toolbar button. Specify the project file name when prompted.
Creating a participant group
A sociometric test always involves a group of participants. Therefore, this group must first be created in the program. The participants belonging to the group are then added. During the sociometric test, the participants will indicate their choices according to the defined criterion (question).
To create a participant group, follow these steps:
- Select the "Clients" node in the object tree and press INSERT on the keyboard.
- In the "Add Client Group" window that opens, enter the group name "Project 'Alpha' Group" and click Yes.
- To add a participant to the created group, select the “Project 'Alpha' Group” node in the object tree and press INSERT.
- In the "Add Client" window that opens, enter the participant's full name "Ivanov Petr Alekseevich" and click Yes. If required, specify the participant's gender, date of birth, and age.
- In the same way (see the previous step), create 7 more participants with the following full names:
- Semenov Vladimir Petrovich
- Samoylova Tatyana Sergeevna
- Shakhov Andrey Evgenievich
- Sidorova Natalya Andreevna
- Pakhomova Elena Aleksandrovna
- Efimov Semen Zakharovich
- Nikolaev Oleg Semenovich
- Save the project with the created participant group using the “Save” toolbar button.
PS:
Please remember that a participant group must contain at least 2 people in order to create a sociometric study.
Defining a criterion
In SociometryPro, every criterion belongs to a criterion group. Criterion groups make it possible to organize criteria according to categories defined by the consultant. For example, you can create a group called "Formal Criteria" or "Informal Criteria", a group called "Criteria for Project Alpha", and so on.
To define a criterion, follow these steps:
- To create a criterion group, select the "Criteria" object in the tree and press INSERT.
- In the "Add Criterion Group" window that opens, enter the group name "Main Criterion Group" and click Yes.
- To add a criterion to the created group, select the “Main Criterion Group” node in the object tree and press INSERT.
- In the "Add Criterion" window that opens, enter the criterion wording "Who would you prefer to work with on Project 'Alpha'?" and click Yes.
- Save the project data using the main menu item “File -> Save”.
Creating a sociometric study
A SociometryPro sociometric study links the sociometric testing data and defines its additional settings. A study uniquely associates a specific participant group with a specific criterion.
Within a study, participants can either be allowed or prohibited from making negative choices when responding to the criterion. Positive choices are always available.
In addition, each study requires you to define the maximum number of choices of any type (positive or negative) that any participant may make with respect to the other participants.
To create a sociometric study:
- Select the "Studies" node in the object tree and press INSERT.
- In the "Add Study" window that opens, keep the default name "Study 1", enable the "Negative choices allowed" option, and set the "Max. number of choices" to 4. Click Yes to confirm creation of the study.
- Save the project data using the main menu item “File -> Save”.