INVESTIGATING SPOUSAL INCONSISTENCIES IN TEMPORAL REPORTS - A METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK

Recent studies demonstrated inconsistencies among family members' resp onses to various social issues. This paper presents a measurement proc edure for comparing, for example, the responses of husbands and wives while also considering the wife's cohort. The procedure was employed i n a study concerning consumers' temporal orientation. The method is ba sed on D2 distances. In addition to constructing the differences betwe en the groups, the paper compares the statistical procedures for asses sing significant differences among the measured distances. Formal stat istical tests are employed, as well as graphical methods for presentin g results. The suggested approach seems useful in a variety of psycho- economic research areas over and beyond the area of husband-wife diffe rences.