You can review the previous articles from the series:
1- Balance Theory: Introduction.
2- Balance Theory: The First Beginnings.
3- Balance Theory Concept.
4- Graph Theory and Balance.
In the next paragraphs we will discuss the main ideas that researchers (Khanafia and Situngkir 2004: 1-12) showed in their study based on many previous researchers as they indicate that social balance theory is a class of theories about balance or imbalance of sentiment relation in dyadic or triadic relations. This theory provides us a tool to analyze the social system and how the sentiment relation among agents evolves to the balanced state that can strengthen social interaction (dyadic levels) or solidarity (in macro level) or initiating the mitosis or separation of subgroups in a social interpersonal networks. Sentiments can result a social mitosis defined as the emergence of two groups, disliking exists between the two subgroups within liking agents. Sentiment relations among agents (localized as triad and dyad) emerges the collective balance of the group. In other words, the task is about to investigate the micro foundation (at dyadic/triadic level) from the global patterns (collective balance). Peoples tends to choose balance state in their interpersonal relations. This is caused by pressure or tension that resulting from the imbalance state in their interpersonal relations, which enforces someone to change his/her sentiment relation toward balance formation or to lesser force/tension. Sentiment relations among individuals can be assumed as a social interpersonal network, and here the structural balance theory shows how change of the dyadic sign cause change of the balance for the whole graph. In the next section, we represent social interpersonal network among individuals in a large group as a network composed of possible triads, while in the other hand each local triadic consisted of three dyadic. By knowing the initial pattern of all dyadic relations, we can determine whether the formed triads are balanced or not. We use a global balance index, defined as the ratio of the number of balanced triads divided by number of all possibly formed triads, and the local balance index, defined as the ratio between the number of balanced triads and the existing number of triads formed by each dyad. The index is used to measure the balance or imbalance of a network (locally or globally). A globally balanced network will have balance index of 1, means that the network is balanced collectively.
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