11 Time Budget Methodology in Social Science Research Ethnicity and Aging K. Victor Ujimoto
INTRODUCTION Recent developments in the application of information technology have provided the means of acquiring new forms of data in social science research. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, information technology was relatively unknown. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, information technology that revolved around high speed computing and much greater datastorage capability enabled social science data acquisition systems to be greatly improved. The introduction of portable computers also contributed to changes in the ways in which data were acquired and stored. In this regard, social science research that used time-budget or time use methodologies benefited considerably. Time-budget methodology involves the collection of data on various activities over a specified period of time, such as the 24-hour day, several days, or over the whole week. The data are essentially observations of what people do in time and space, either as individuals or in groups. Depending on the nature of the information required, human activities can be K. Victor Ujimoto • Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1. Time Use Research in the Social Sciences, edited by Wendy E. Pentland, Andrew S. Harvey, M. Powell Lawton, and Mary Ann McColl. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, 1999. 231