Using personality to predict conflict via ERGMs I am using ERGMs to test how different personality variables lead to conflict connections among group members.  Specifically, I am assessing if differences in extraversion (Big Five) among team-member dyads make it more likely for conflict to occur.  I have been using the absdiff function to test this as shown here:
c<-ergm(RC3MS~edgecov(structural0)+edges+absdiff("Extra")+nodecov("English")+nodefactor("Country"))

In this case "Extra" refers to extraversion, and the other parameters are control variables among some other model specifications.  The issue I am having is that the absdiff function can only test if overall conflict is more likely to emerge in these pairs without taking into account the direction of the conflict (i.e., who is reporting conflict within the dyad).  Does anyone know of a function that could assess this relationship, while also considering the direction of the reported conflict?  Thank you!
 A: Check out the nodeicov() and nodeocov() terms. I'm assuming (can't comment yet!) that your edges represent conflict between ties, where $i \rightarrow j$ indicates that $i$ reports a conflict with $j$. The first term would tell you if individuals with greater extraversion scores are more likely to have in-directed conflict ties. The second would tell you if greater extraversion is associated with more out-directed conflict ties.
Another option: Make "Extra" categorical (e.g. "high", "medium", "low") and use the categorical homophily and assortive mixing terms (nodematch() [use the argument diff=T if you expect differential homophily], nodemix()). This will let you explore the likelihood of tie formation among pairs of nodes in each category.
A: I'm sorry this answer comes so late, but it sounds like the term you're looking for is "diff" -- like absdiff, but (obviously) retains the direction of the difference.  Take a look at ergm's term description (?help 'ergm-terms') to get more information on the tail vs. head implementation of this difference in directed nets.
