Personal telephone networks: A typology and two empirical studies

Abstract

The article reports an effort to map the personal telephone networks of samples of respondents and to use characteristics of networks to partially explain phone usage patterns. A typology which consisted of four network types was formulated by dichotomizing and cross‐tabulating respondents according to their position of two variables which were termed affective relations and proximate relations. Expectations based on the typology were assessed in both a city‐wide sample of Columbus, Ohio, and in a state‐wide survey. Many of the expectations associated with the typology were supported.