Compare methods

	Name Generator Method	Position Generator Method
Field	Sociology	Sociology
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1984 (GSS network module)	2001
Originator	Survey network methodology; Ronald Burt (GSS module)	Nan Lin & colleagues
Type	Survey instrument for eliciting personal-network members and attributes	Survey instrument for measuring accessed social capital
Seminal source	Burt, R. S. (1984). Network items and the General Social Survey. Social Networks, 6(4), 293–339.	Lin, N. (2001). Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-521-52167-3
Aliases	name generator, name interpreter, egocentric network survey, personal network name generator	position generator, Lin position generator, accessed social capital instrument, occupational position generator
Related	5	5
Summary	The name generator is the standard survey technique for collecting egocentric (personal) network data. A respondent (ego) is prompted to name the people (alters) with whom they have a specified kind of relationship — those with whom they discuss important matters, exchange support, or socialize. A follow-up battery of name-interpreter questions then records each alter's attributes and the ties among the alters, yielding measures of network size, composition, density, and diversity for each respondent.	The position generator, developed by Nan Lin and colleagues, is a survey instrument for measuring an individual's social capital — the resources embedded in their personal network. Respondents are presented with a sample of occupations spanning the prestige hierarchy and asked, for each, whether they know anyone in that job. From these answers, the method derives indicators such as the number of positions accessed (extensity), the highest-prestige position reachable (upper reachability), and the range of prestige spanned, summarizing the volume and diversity of resources a person can mobilize through their contacts.