Methodological Comparisons Between CATI Event History Calendar and Standardized Conventional Questionnaire Instruments

Six hundred and twenty-six participants from the Panel Studyof Income Dynamics (PSID) were interviewed via telephone retrospectivelyabout life course events by either computer-assisted (CATI)event history calendar (EHC) or standardized CATI conventionalquestionnaire (CQ) methods, randomly assigned. Experimentalretrospective reports, for a reference period up to 30 years,were validated against reports provided annually from the PSIDcore interviews. Data quality outcome measures included variablesassociated with marriage, cohabitation, employment, unemployment,residential changes, and cigarette smoking. The EHC providedhigher quality retrospective reports for cohabitation, employment,unemployment, and smoking histories; the CQ provided betterdata quality for marriage history, although what variable wasbeing measured, instead of which method was being used, hadthe biggest impact on differences in data quality. Both EHCand CQ interviews lasted on average around one hour, with theEHC interviews being on average 10 percent longer. Interviewerspreferred the EHC interviews. In both EHC and CQ conditions,respondents generally enjoyed the interviews, and did not findquestions difficult. The costs and benefits of both EHC andCQ methods in the collection of life course retrospective reportsare discussed. Received for publication December 19, 2005. Revision received September 25, 2007. Accepted for publication September 25, 2007.     

The complexity of ignorance

We examine the kinds of mistakes that are frequently made when the general public is asked to identify political symbols from the past half century. A particularly striking phenomenon is inversion: the event is recalled backwards, so that Rosa Parks is remembered for having given up her seat on a bus to a white person. A second type of error occurs by linking a name to the wrong person, as when John Dean is identified as a movie actor (James Dean). Still another type of mistake involves a correct substantive categorization but with temporal displacement, for example, the Tet Offensive is said to have occurred during the Korean War. In each of these cases we are able to speculate about the social and psychological processes that have led to the misremembering. However, not every error is lodged in respondents: we initially treated as incorrect all answers that did not fit our own expectations; but we were soon forced to recognize that other frames of reference could be brought to the task and lay equal claim to the truth. Names are alphabetical and authorship is equal.     

The Intermodal Bike: multi-modal integration of cycling mobility through product and process innovations in bicycle design

The paper presents the early results of the UE-FP7 project "The Intermodal Bike". The research aim is to provide a super-compactable, super-lightweight folding bicycle as a realistic solution to graft the cycling mode onto the root of the public or private transportation systems. The folding bikes now on the international market reach weighs between 12-15 kg, with a variable footprint but occupying -when compacted- an average volume of about 100 liters. To encourage the use of this vehicle and to extend it to a larger number of users with different characteristics, the research project has set its goal in increasing as possible compactness and light weight, creating a bicycle with a volume when compacted of 20 liters (reduction factor =5), with a shape of 48 × 36 × 12 cm and a weight of 5 kg. max., ensuring stability and improving vehicle usability and efficiency, during the ride and in the phase of bike folding. To achieve this goal ergonomic and usability tests have been carried out. The tests allowed to find a posture that would ensure efficiency and comfort in the ride to as many users as possible. Parallel tests were made on the vehicle usability in the urban transport system and intermodal. The need for light weight has required special studies on the optimization of the vehicle's architecture and research on super-lightweight materials.     

‘Often it is because of who is doing it.’ The production of a youth subculture’s image through talk

This paper proposes a transactional approach to how the image of a subculture is co-produced through talk in the context of a face-to-face social encounter. A single-case micro-analysis of a talk about the squatting movement in Spain is developed. During the talk an interaction occurs between university students, one of whom is a squatter. Inspired by Goffman’s work on the presentation of the self in everyday life, we examined how co-participants engaged in the following: (1) the production of a working definition of squatting and squatters, (2) the critical examination of such definition, and (3) the repair of squatting and squatters’ image when it is spoiled. The analysed social encounter is regarded as an example of ‘mixed contact’ between members and non-members of youth (political) subculture. The discussion stresses the techniques of information control deployed by the subculturalist to manage the public image of squatters while performing dramaturgical loyalty to her membership groups. A transactional understanding of youth subculture is proposed.     

Event history calendars and question list surveys: a direct comparison of interviewing methods

The research reported in this article provides the first direct experimental comparison between Event History Calendar (EHC; N=309; 84.4 percent response rate) and standardized state-of-the-art question list (Q-list; N=307; 84.1 percent response rate) interviewing methodologies. Respondents and 20 interviewers were randomly assigned to EHC and Q-list interviews that were conducted via telephone in the spring of 1998. All interviews asked for retrospective reports on social and economic behaviors that occurred during the calendar years of 1996 and 1997. Using data from the same respondents collected 1 year earlier on events reported during 1996 as a standard of comparison, the quality of retrospective reports on 1996 events from the 1998 administration of EHC and Q-list interviews was assessed. In comparison to the Q-list, the EHC condition led to better-quality retrospective reports on moves, income, weeks unemployed, and weeks missing work resulting from self illness, the illness of another, or missing work for these reasons in combination with other ones. For reports of household members entering the residence, and number of jobs, the EHC led to significantly more overreporting than the Q-list. Contingent on additional research that examines a wider range of reference periods and different modes of interviewing, the EHC may become a viable and potentially superior method to the Q-list in the collection of self-reported retrospective information.