In so far as there are interrelationships among the life-cycles of various persons in the family and household, information must be gathered from all household members. Finally, since it is essential to understand the meaning of actions for the subjects involved in order to construct accurate analytical models, links should be established between the interviews of the household members. This is a particularly useful approach for programme planners and project designers who do not have the time to do long-term studies. That the life-cycle unfolds in a social environment undergoing change makes the analysis even more complex. The historical circumstances, the specific conditions in which processes of family and individual change take place, are variables that must be included explicitly.
Historical time has to be part of studies of household dynamics.
Even in highly monetized and market-oriented societies, the production of goods and services for household consumption is a key household economic activity. A household is not an undifferentiated set of individuals who equally share all activities linked to its maintenance. It is a social organization, a microcosm of relations of production, reproduction, and distribution. Internal differentiation and stratification of households are revealed in the diversity of activities and tasks individual members perform, and in the ways in which goods and services are distributed. Although the household is a unit with a common goal, it is also the locus of divergent interests and capabilities.