Contents - Index

SAMPSON MONASTERY


DATASET SAMPSON

DESCRIPTION Ten 18x18 matrices

SAMPLK1 non-symmetric, valued (rankings)
SAMPLK2 non-symmetric, valued (rankings)
SAMPLK3 non-symmetric, valued (rankings)
SAMPDLK non-symmetric, valued (rankings)
SAMPES  non-symmetric, valued (rankings)
SAMPDES non-symmetric, valued (rankings)
SAMPIN  non-symmetric, valued (rankings)
SAMPNIN non-symmetric, valued (rankings)
SAMPPR  non-symmetric, valued (rankings)
SAMPNPR non-symmetric, valued (rankings)

BACKGROUND Sampson recorded the social interactions among a group of monks while resident as an experimenter on vision, and collected numerous sociometric rankings. The labels on the data have the abbreviated names followed by the codings used by Breiger and Boorman in all their work. During his stay, a political "crisis in the cloister" resulted in the expulsion of four monks (Nos. 2, 3, 17, and 18) and the voluntary departure of several others - most immediately, Nos. 1, 7, 14, 15, and 16. (In the end, only 5, 6, 9, and 11 remained). All the numbers used refer to the Boorman and Breiger numbering and are not row or column labels. Hence in the end Bonaventure, Berthold, Ambrose and Louis all remained.

Most of the present data are retrospective, collected after the breakup occurred. They concern a period during which a new cohort entered the monastery near the end of the study but before the major conflict began. The exceptions are "liking" data gathered at three times: SAMPLK1 to SAMPLK3 - that reflect changes in group sentiment over time (SAMPLK3 was collected in the same wave as the data described below). Information about the senior monks was not included.

Four relations are coded, with separate matrices for positive and negative ties on the relation. Each member ranked only his top three choices on that tie. The relations are esteem (SAMPES) and disesteem (SAMPDES), liking (SAMPLK) and disliking (SAMPDLK), positive influence (SAMPIN) and negative influence (SAMPNIN), praise (SAMPPR) and blame (SAMPNPR). In all rankings 3 indicates the highest or first choice and 1 the last choice. (Some subjects offered tied ranks for their top four choices).

REFERENCES Breiger R., Boorman S. and Arabie P. (1975). An algorithm for clustering relational data with applications to social network analysis and comparison with multidimensional scaling. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 12, 328-383.

Sampson, S. (1969). Crisis in a cloister. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Cornell University.