Lived Day Analysis in Japan
So you’re extraverted, conscientious, and neurotic. What difference does this actually make in your daily life? This is the question posed by Lived Day Analysis, first articulated in Barker and Wright’s (1951) in One Boy’s Life. Patient observers followed little Raymond Birch around and recorded his every move, down to which sock he put on first (Mehl, Gosling, and Pennebaker 2006). As part of its census, the Japanese Statistics Bureau equips a sample of its citizens with notebooks to record their daily time budgets （社会生活基本調査・生活時間編）.Soma has lovingly visualized this data:
More high-tech research uses Electronically Activated Recorders (EAR), digital voice recorders or PDAs that sample sounds from your environment. The records are later analyzed to chart what the hell you spend your time doing. This can be compared with your personality to tell, for instance, that extraverted women really do spend more time in group conversation (Mehl et al. 2006). Such observational sampling is common in research on other animals but more difficult with humans. However, technology is finally catching up with our desire to collect this kind of data and may bend research back to thinking about personality in terms of behavior rather than in terms of adjectival traits (cf. Mischel 1968). or consider, Are Mexicans More or Less Sociable than Americans? we measured self-reported sociability using a personality questionnaire, and behavioral sociability using the Electroctronically Activated Recorder (EAR) in Mexican and American students. The results showed that Mexicans saw themselves as less sociable than Americans, but they behaved more sociably in their everyday lives.… Whereas Mexicans socialized more often in public environments and by interacting with a person who is immediately present, Americans socialized more in private environments and by interacting with remote persons. Mehl et al. (2006) Personality in Its Natural Habitat: Manifestations and Implicit Folk Theories of Personality in Daily Life. J Pers Soc Psychol 90. 862-877. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.90.5.862 Mischel, W. (1968). Personality and assessment. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Ramirezesparza et al. (2008) Are Mexicans More or Less Sociable than Americans? Insights from a Naturalistic Observation Study. Journal of Research in Personality. doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2008.09.002
