On Being Caught Up in Time

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Abstract
This paper discusses certain methodological problems inherent in the use of time as an integral factor in research. Because lives and events are embedded in a single, unidirectional time stream, time-defined variables often produce multiple confounds. The developmental model (Schaie) addresses this problem for age, cohort, and time of measurement. But a more general model can be developed, based on analysis of the formal properties of time-related confounds. Alternative strategies to disentangle these confounds are suggested. The most radical is to avoid chronological indices and, instead, identify the meanings we wish to capture and search for unconfounded measures of these meanings.

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