[lbo-talk] gender & work time

[Gar Lipow]

On 4/20/07, Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
> Doug:
>
> >
> > Well a time diary is a form of self-reporting, but that is semantics.
> > More to the point I doubt time diaries are filled out as the work is
> > done.  I filled out an arbitron diary once, and I did not track my
> > listening as it happened, but reconstructed from memory they day
> > before mailing it. Anecdotal, but I wonder if diaries really differ
> > significantly from other forms of self-reporting.
>
> The paper addresses that:
>
> > No matter how extensive a set of codes is, each survey will have a
> > different way of coding and aggregating what might seem like the
> > same activity to an observer. Time diaries have the virtue of
> > forcing respondents to provide a time allocation that adds to 24
> > hours in a day. Also, unlike retrospective data about last week's
> > or even last year's time spent working, while the time-diary
> > information is necessarily based on recall, the recall period is
> > only one day. The shorter recall period and the implicit time-
> > budget constraint suggest that information on market work from time
> > diaries is likely to be more reliable than the recall data on time
> > use from standard household surveys; and, of course, time diaries
> > provide information on non-market activities that is unavailable
> > from labor-force surveys.
>
> [WS:] The problem with diaries is not recollection - on that diaries score
> better than interviewer administered surveys that cover longer time spans -
> but willful misrepresentation.  Respondents have more time and opportunity
> to "doctor" their responses to provide "desirable" answers.  This was a
> known problem of diaries of TV watching - people often reported what they
> wanted to see rather than what they actually watched.  Consequently, diaries
> were replaced with electronic devices recording the time, channel, and
> whether someone was in the room.
>
> The same problem pertains to time use - people will probably skip
> questionable or illicit activities (like jerking off, watching porn, smoking
> dope, or even taking a nap) and report more socially desirable ones.  And by
> doing diaries they have more opportunities to do than undetected i.e.
> provide logical responses that add to 24 hours.
>
> My point is not to discount time use surveys, but to show that there are no
> easy fix for socially desirable response bias in self-reported surveys -
> regardless of the format or the protocol.
>

WOJ's point on falsification is a good one, and essentially an
amplification of K's point. Also just becasue the diary is in 24 hour
format does not mean it is being filled out within 24 hours. That was
the point I was making with arbitron ratings. I filled out a diary in
24 hour format , filling in seven days worth of 24 hour periods in one
night. Incidentally, the reason I had not read the part you cite, is
that your link goes to an abstract that requires a $5 payment to read
the entire paper. Did they collect the diaries after 24 hours, or did
they have them mail them? In short did the collection method allow
last minute filling out some time later. The thing is poor
recollection and falsification would be synergistic. The more you are
guessing the more temptation to falsify. And the more you are honestly
trying to recollect from memory, the easier it is to reconstruct your
memory (in all honesty) in a way you think more socially acceptable.
I'm really suspicious on this one, but perhaps I'd be less so if I
could see the whole paper. If a copy of the PDF were to mysteriously
appear in my mailbox, I might have some more thoughts on this.