Compare methods

	Structural Balance Theory	Dyadic Analysis	Homophily Analysis
Field	Sociology	Sociology	Sociology
Family	Process / pipeline	Regression model	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1946 (Heider); 1956 (Cartwright & Harary)	1981	1954 (concept); 2001 (synthesis)
Originator	Fritz Heider; formalized by Dorwin Cartwright & Frank Harary	Holland & Leinhardt (p1); Kenny (Social Relations Model)	Lazarsfeld & Merton (concept); McPherson, Smith-Lovin & Cook (synthesis)
Type	Theory and graph-theoretic test for tension in signed relationships	Analysis of the dyad as the unit, decomposing relational effects	Measurement of similarity-based tie formation
Seminal source	Cartwright, D., & Harary, F. (1956). Structural balance: a generalization of Heider's theory. Psychological Review, 63(5), 277–293.	Holland, P. W., & Leinhardt, S. (1981). An exponential family of probability distributions for directed graphs. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 76(373), 33–50.	McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, L., & Cook, J. M. (2001). Birds of a feather: homophily in social networks. Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 415–444.
Aliases	balance theory, Heider balance, signed network balance, structural balance analysis	dyad analysis, dyadic data analysis, social relations model, dyad census	homophily measurement, assortative mixing analysis, birds-of-a-feather analysis, tie-similarity analysis
Related	5	4	4
Summary	Structural balance theory analyzes networks whose ties carry a sign — positive for liking, alliance, or trust, negative for hostility or distrust — and asks which configurations are psychologically and socially stable. Originating in Fritz Heider's cognitive balance principle and given a graph-theoretic form by Dorwin Cartwright and Frank Harary in 1956, it predicts that signed networks evolve toward states free of the tension produced by inconsistent triads such as 'the friend of my enemy'.	Dyadic analysis treats the dyad — the pair of actors and the relation between them — as the unit of analysis, separating the relational outcome into what each actor brings to all their relationships and what is unique to the specific pair. It spans the descriptive dyad census of network analysis and statistical frameworks such as Holland and Leinhardt's p1 model and Kenny's Social Relations Model, all of which respect the structural non-independence inherent in relational data.	Homophily analysis quantifies the tendency of similar individuals to form ties — the principle that 'birds of a feather flock together'. It compares the rate at which people connect with others who share an attribute (race, gender, age, education, attitudes) against what would be expected by chance, distinguishing the homophily that arises merely from group sizes from the genuine, behavior-driven preference for similar others.