Compare methods

	Triad Census	Blockmodeling	Dyadic Analysis	Social Network Analysis	Structural Balance Theory
Field	Sociology	Sociology	Sociology	Network analysis	Sociology
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Regression model	Machine learning	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1970	1976	1981	1934 (sociometry); 1994 (modern formalization)	1946 (Heider); 1956 (Cartwright & Harary)
Originator	Paul Holland & Samuel Leinhardt	Harrison White, Scott Boorman & Ronald Breiger	Holland & Leinhardt (p1); Kenny (Social Relations Model)	Moreno, J.L.; formalized by Wasserman & Faust	Fritz Heider; formalized by Dorwin Cartwright & Frank Harary
Type	Enumeration of the 16 isomorphism classes of directed triads	Network partitioning into positions and a reduced role structure	Analysis of the dyad as the unit, decomposing relational effects	Structural/relational analysis framework	Theory and graph-theoretic test for tension in signed relationships
Seminal source	Holland, P. W., & Leinhardt, S. (1970). A method for detecting structure in sociometric data. American Journal of Sociology, 76(3), 492–513.	White, H. C., Boorman, S. A., & Breiger, R. L. (1976). Social structure from multiple networks. I. Blockmodels of roles and positions. American Journal of Sociology, 81(4), 730–780.	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.	Wasserman, S. & Faust, K. (1994). Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-521-38707-1	Cartwright, D., & Harary, F. (1956). Structural balance: a generalization of Heider's theory. Psychological Review, 63(5), 277–293.
Aliases	triad count, triadic census, 16-type triad census, MAN triad census	block modeling, blockmodel analysis, generalized blockmodeling, CONCOR	dyad analysis, dyadic data analysis, social relations model, dyad census	SNA, network analysis, sociometric analysis, relational analysis	balance theory, Heider balance, signed network balance, structural balance analysis
Related	4	4	4	5	5
Summary	The triad census counts how many of a directed network's three-actor subgroups fall into each of the 16 possible types of triad, providing a compact fingerprint of the network's local structure. Introduced by Paul Holland and Samuel Leinhardt in 1970, it is the standard way to test structural theories — balance, clustering, transitivity, ranked clusters — by comparing the observed distribution of triad types against what a random network would produce.	Blockmodeling is a family of methods that simplify a social network by partitioning its actors into positions — groups of actors who are equivalent in their pattern of ties — and summarizing the relations between positions as a compact image, or reduced role structure. Introduced by Harrison White, Scott Boorman, and Ronald Breiger in 1976, it shifts attention from individuals to the structural roles they occupy.	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.	Social Network Analysis (SNA) is a structural method that maps and measures relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, or other entities modeled as nodes connected by ties (edges). Rather than focusing on individual attributes, SNA reveals how the pattern of connections shapes behavior, influence, information flow, and outcomes within a system.	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'.