A sociogram is understood as the technique that allows studying and seeing the types of interrelationships that exist between the individuals that are part of a group, supported by graphic representations.
The sociogram is the best known sociometric technique and sociometry is a field of sociology that in psychology has been used by the so-called social psychology and has been accepted as the measure of social relations between members of a group.
The sociogram is a way of visualizing and representing the structure of a group with the intention of obtaining a group X-ray; that is, with this technique we seek to graphically achieve the ties of influence and preference that exist in it, through the observation and contextualization of the different relationships between the subjects that make up that group.
These types of relationships are not usually formal, in most cases they are informal.
The sociogram is a tool created by the Romanian psychiatrist Jacob Levy Moreno in the 30s of the 20th century whose purpose was to explore and diagnose, mainly in schools and jobs. It is currently widely used in various organizations, from small schools to large and important companies. It is also used in intelligence work to detect criminal networks.
What you should know
With the sociogram technique, it is easy to see the degrees of influence and the ties of preference that appear within the group studied. It is a method that allows measuring the social relations between the members of a group of people, where its elements know each other, have common objectives and influence each other.
With the graph of the sociometric study, that is, with this type of sociogram, we can appreciate the affinities, detect subgroups within the main group and locate the most influential subjects. In this way, it is possible to act on the set of people to activate or deactivate potential links.
Thanks to the use of the sociogram it is possible to improve collective relations, as well as individual reorientation, since this technique facilitates the identification of members in the organization of a group. To do this, each of the members of the group in question is asked about their social preferences within that group. Many of the questions are about the affinities and rejections to the rest of the members of the group.
The choices or rejections together with other attributive questions, will be represented with numbers for each of the members and in this way a most intuitive graphic result will be obtained with which it will be possible to clearly see what is happening at a social level in that group. of people.
As we have said before, the sociogram can be applied in small groups or large and important groups or organizations. What must be taken into account is that it is usually used to carry out studies at an educational and work level.
In addition, in a school context it is very easy to see which children are most at risk of social exclusion and thus be able to prevent acts of bullying. The same thing happens at work, since with this sociometric technique it will be possible to detect which people are more vulnerable and could be victims of mobbing or workplace harassment.
Finally, and on a psychological level, a sociogram is a first way of representing a first social image of a group and being able to find solutions to possible problems that may arise within that group of people and that prevent everyone from reaching the same goals.
