North-Holland A NOTE ON SCALING THE GENERAL SOCIAL SURVEY NETWORK ITEM RESPONSE cATEGORIES *

The idea of structural balance is used to suggest quantitative intervals between relationship strength response categories in the GSS network data. in contrast o an assumption of equal intervals between the categories of relationship strength, the intervals appear quite unequal. Relations with discussion partners "less close " to their respondent than other cited discussion partners are about 0.17 the strength of relations with "especially close " discussion partners. The middle category of relations between discussion partners appear to be little more than acquain-tance relations; about 0.2 of the distance from people who are "total strangers " to people who are "especially close". 1