What Is a Sociogram?

A sociogram is a tool for charting the relationships within a group. It’s a visual representation of the
social links and preferences that each person has – valuable data for leaders.

Here’s how they work.

To construct a sociogram, ask each person to confidentially list two other people to work with on an
activity. The topic does not matter. In most cases, the social relationships will be relatively constant
regardless of the activity. Make sure they put their own name on the top of the paper. Then you write
up this data as a chart. Arrows indicate who is choosing whom. The green arrows indicate that those
people chose each other.

Interpreting the Sociogram

Here are three patterns to look for when breaking down a sociogram:

Isolates – One of the alerts a leader gets from this is that there are some people – the isolates – who no
one has chosen or who have only been chosen by another isolate. In the sociogram above, Sam is an
isolate and so is Jill, having only been chosen by Sam. While it is wise to have a certain degree of
philosophical skepticism in making initial assumptions about isolates, they are a cause for concern. You
want to make sure they feel connected and supported in the larger group.

Cliques – There are several quite tight groups which may well merit some degree of skepticism. Are
these groups “cliques” that exclude others? Cliques are defined as groups of three or more people
within a larger group who all choose each other. In the above example, Ann, Fleur and Meg have all
chosen each other, and are clearly a tight group. You may want to observe to make sure they aren’t
excluding other people.
Stars – Stars are people who have been chosen many times on the sociogram. These people are
generally popular and well-liked, hence being chosen by many of their peers. In the example given
above, can you find one of the Stars?

Remember, this is simply a guide. If nothing else, the sociogram can be used as a guide for further, more
focused, observation.

What Is a Sociogram?

Now we know! It’s a valuable tool for unlocking data on relationships and group dynamics. So whether
you are a leader in a classroom or an office, you can use a sociogram to glean actionable data about the
group’s social dynamics.