Sociometric tests

Sociometric tests are measures used to assess various aspects of group members and their interactions.

Measure of characteristics of group members
These assess such factors as preferences and attitudes as they might relate to group participation etc. These might include:

Measures of group interaction
These assess the pattern of social interaction within groups: They include:


 * Sociogram

Moreno's Criteria for Sociometric Tests
In "Sociometry, Experimental Method and the Science of Society. An Approach to a New Political Orientation." Moreno describes the depth to which a group needs to go for the method to be "sociometric". The term for him had a qualitative meaning and did not apply unless some group process criteria were met. One of these is that there is acknowledgment of the difference between process dynamics and the manifest content. To quote Moreno: "there is a deep discrepancy between the official and the secret behavior of members". Moreno advocates that before any "social program" can be proposed, the sociometrist has to "take into account the actual constitution of the group."

Other criteria are: the Rule of adequate motivation: "Every participant should feel about the experiment that it is in his (or her) own cause . . . that it is an opportunity for him (or her) to become an active agent in matters concerning his (or her) life situation." and the Rule of "gradual" inclusion of all extraneous criteria. Moreno speaks here of "the slow dialectic process of the sociometric experiment".