Compare methods

	Social Network Mapping	Ecomap Analysis
Field	Social Work	Social Work
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1990	1978
Originator	Elizabeth M. Tracy & James K. Whittaker	Ann Hartman
Type	Visual and structured assessment of a client's personal social network	Graphical, qualitative person-in-environment assessment tool
Seminal source	Tracy, E. M., & Whittaker, J. K. (1990). The Social Network Map: Assessing social support in clinical practice. Families in Society, 71(8), 461–470.	Hartman, A. (1978). Diagrammatic assessment of family relationships. Social Casework, 59(8), 465–476.
Aliases	Social Network Map, Personal Network Mapping, Network Mapping (Social Work), Social Network Grid	Ecomap, Eco-Map, Ecological Map, Hartman Ecomap
Related	4	3
Summary	Social network mapping is a structured way to assess a client's personal social network by listing the people in it, organizing them by life domain, and rating each relationship for the kind and direction of support it provides, its closeness, and how often and how long contact occurs. Developed for social-work practice by Elizabeth Tracy and James Whittaker as the Social Network Map and accompanying grid, it turns the often-vague question of who is in a client's life and what they offer into a visual and tabular assessment that guides support-focused intervention.	An ecomap is a graphical map of a household or individual set within their social environment, showing the connections between the focal system and the external systems around it — extended family, work, school, health care, friends, agencies, religion, and recreation — and coding each connection as strong, tenuous, or stressful, with arrows for the flow of energy and resources. Ecomap analysis is the practice of drawing and interpreting this map to assess the person-in-environment, the central organizing concept of social work. It was introduced by Ann Hartman in 1978.