Mitchell Centre Seminar Series
| Dates: | 8 November 2017 |
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| Times: | 16:00 - 16:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Social Sciences |
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| Speaker: | Daniel |
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Daniel Tischer, University of Manchester
Friendship relationship formation in Year 1 students
The project we are presenting here seeks to combine network data and psychometric profiles of students in a lecture theatre setting to inform emergence of friendship patterns, well-being and achievement in year 1 undergraduate students / freshmen(-women).
The company we keep influences our perceptions and actions and thus what we view as worthy goals and how we might go about achieving those goals. Peer relationships are amongst the most important in early adulthood, influencing our self-perceptions, career development, feelings of security and well-being. Given the diverse effects of social groups and in particular friends, it is surprising that few studies have examined these issues within a higher-education context and those that do exist have tended to neglect the effects of friendship formation.
Previous friendship formation studies also tend to be somewhat limited in scope. Most have focused on primary and secondary school settings where the choice of friends is, arguably, predetermined geographically, constrained by small student numbers (up to 30) and pre-existing friendships. Within higher education, Facebook friendship data or mixed-method studies across universities have permitted a broader assessment of friendship ties but neglect the classroom setting and thus give little information about the nature of the ties within educational settings.
Our study examines the relationship between friendship patterns and achievement in higher education and in doing so combines psychometric measurement of participant personality with longitudinal network data. Personality is driver of friendship formation and success and collecting this data allow us to examine whether or not different personality traits are associated with different network patterns. Spatial data regarding student position within the classroom will be analysed to see if certain types of personality lead to different seating positions and also whether choice of seating is related to other network behaviour.
Speaker
Daniel
Organisation: Tischer
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
A114
Samuel Alexander Building
Manchester
