Social network analysis in psychology: Recent breakthroughs in methods and theories.

As a standalone method and analytical technique, social network analysis (SNA) necessitates a different research design and data collection method that are not often covered in a typical research methods textbook in psychology. SNA requires totally different analytical tools that are traditionally beyond the access for many psychologists. This chapter introduces SNA—a formal method to study relationships—to the psychology community and highlights in the recent breakthroughs in methods and theories. With the increasing utilization of the R statistical programming language in psychological research, the analytical barrier of SNA has become minimal for many psychologists. The chapter elaborates on the methodological foundations of social network research and introduces both basic and advanced social network analytical techniques. It also showcases applications of SNA in various psychological domains for advancing theoretical research.