Time-Budgets of Human Behavior (review)

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Time-Budgets of Humahn Behavior (review)
Several book reviews bound together in a red book entitled Sorokin Reviews, Social PsychologyTIME-BUDGETS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR. By Pit-hum A.Sokokin and Clarence Q. BergBR. Cambridge: HarvardUniversity Press, 1939, pp. xi+204.On the basis of records kept by about 100 individuals from day to day for four weeks, the authors present tentative answers to the following questions: Of what specific activities does the whole of human behavior consist? What is the succession of these activities? What are the sex-age-occupation differences in the content and duration of behavior day by day? What arc the motives and how are they related to the whole pattern of human behavior? What activities are conducted in solitude, and what in the company of others? How far in advancecan an individual predict his own activities? The subjects were chiefly female, white, single, of long residence in or near Boston, of ages largely between twenty and thirty, and of high school education. They were either relief workers under the Works Progress Administration or white-collar unemployed in Boston. The study was made in 1935. Each person kept a record according to
Time-Budgets of Humahn Behavior (review)
Several book reviews bound together in a red book entitled Sorokin Reviews, definite schedules furnished him by five-minute periods. Each personmade each record immediately, or as soon after the activity was overas possible. The authors do not seem to allow sufficiently for a weaknessin method at this point. In other words, if a person's attention is continually centered on making a record of each of his activities as soon as it is over, how far is his behavior going to vary from what his behavior would have been if he had had no thought of recording and of analyzing it according to a schedule? After reviewing other time-activity studies, the authors present their data. The activities freely described by the subjects have been classified by the authors under a total of fifty-five headings. In genera!, sleep isgiven eight hours and twenty-four minutes daily; eating, one hour and twenty-nine minutes per day; physical exercise, fourteen minutes; personal care, seventy-seven minutes; transportation, eighty-six minutes; walking, fifty-five and one-half minutes; shopping, seventy-four minutes; work (for others remuneratively), five and one-half hours. It is suggested that "out of every twenty-four hours about eighteen are spent in activities satisfying physical and economic needs." Civic and political activities are given one tenth of a minute a day. Talking takes fifty-six minutes. Religious activities average eight minutes for the whole number studied, and forty and eight-tenths minutes for those who participate in religious exercises. The movie and the theater get 186 minutes per participant, but art receives attention from only one per cent of the group. Dancing averages 147-9 minutes per day per participant; and automobile riding, 174.5 minutes per participant.Several other questions are discussed concretely and significantly. The suhjects were asked to predict their activities for a day or more in advance, and then to check and see how far their predictions came true. Again, the validity of the method may be seriously questioned. How far will one be affected in his behavior by predicting his own behavior?Even so, the results show interesting and extensive variations from thepredictions. Despite the weaknesses in method, this study is exceedingly valuable and stands at the top of similar inquiries