Accomplishments
Network analysis- A mathematical tool to understand relationships
- Abstract
Network analysis is a research method that is uniquely suited to describing, exploring, and comprehending structural and relational aspects of a wide range of real-world situations. It is a methodological tool as well as a theoretical paradigm that enables to pose and answer critical questions. Mathematics, statistics, sociology, anthropology, psychology, biology, physics, and computer science all have roots in it. Network analysis has a long and complex history that draws on traditions from a variety of research disciplines. Networks can have visual as well as mathematical properties that make them tractable as a method of generating knowledge about relational data. The connections between nodes in any network can have social and academic implications. As a researcher, there is a need of imagining and investigating relationships between concepts, attitudes, and beliefs at the level of the individual mind. Relationships are the common denominator here. The idea behind this paper is that there is a methodology that can consider students' inherently relational nature with one another. One such method is network analysis. The paper provides a brief overview of network analysis as a statistical approach, how it can be visualised and analysed, and it can be viewed as an investigation of network analysis as a methodological tool based on a real-life situation for bonding between M.Sc. Mathematics part 2 students at Somaiya Vidyavihar University as an example. The students' best friends, formal friends, and enemies were asked to bond, which was represented using a network that provided a clear visualisation. Finally, despite the fact that each of them has some enemies, they are not willing to unethically create some problems for them, and in terms of friendship, they are always willing to help each other academically despite not having a good bond between them.