NOMINATIONS AND NUMBERS - METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS, PARADOX EFFECTS AND ARTIFACTS OF CORRELATING NOMINATION DATA

Nomination techniques have been used widely in the last decades in soc iometric research. Recently, nomination techniques - especially peer n ominations - have become increasingly popular in research areas such a s ''identification of special abilities'' or ''identification of the g ifted''. Despite the long tradition of nomination procedures its metho dological problems and pitfalls are not fully recognized and being fre quently ignored. The present article identifies the specific propertie s of nomination data and its potential artifacts. The key issues are e xemplified by the method ''Tracking Talents'' (Gagne, 1992). It is sho wn via an illustrational data set that nomination scores are extremely susceptible to artifacts if correlations are used.