Experience Sampling Methodology Research Articles

An experience sampling investigation of emotion and worry in people with generalized anxiety disorder

Emotion-oriented theories (e.g., emotion dysregulation model, Mennin et al., 2005; contrast avoidance model; Newman & Llera, 2011) posit that people with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) have disturbances in emotion, experience negative emotion as aversive and in turn use maladaptive strategies, including worry, to regulate their distress. Much of what is known about emotion in the context of GAD is based on studies employing static methodologies. It is proposed that constructs and methodologies from the literature on emotion dynamics offer a complementary perspective. The principal aims of the study were to identify an emotion profile for people with GAD and to examine the direct effect of worry on subsequent negative and positive emotions via the experience sampling method. Participants included people with GAD (GAD group; n = 39) and people without GAD (nonclinical control [NCC] group; n = 41). Relative to the NCC group, the GAD group exhibited an emotion profile characterized by elevated mean intensity, greater instability and greater inertia of negative emotions and lower mean intensity, greater instability of positive emotions, but did not differ on inertia of positive emotions. People with GAD were found to have greater worry inertia and worry was also found to be associated with a subsequent increase in negative emotion, and this was more pronounced for the GAD group relative to the NCC group. The findings inform emotion-oriented models, provide unique insights into the dynamic emotional experiences of those with GAD and reinforce the benefits of the experience sampling methodology to study GAD-relevant processes.

Investment in Emotional Labor: Daily Resource Spirals and Recovery

Service workers perform emotional labor with customers by surface acting (modifying expressions) or deep acting (modifying mood). Surface acting clearly has more costs and fewer gains than deep acting, but it is less clear how those daily costs and gains contribute to the performance of emotional labor over time. Based on emotional labor theorizing and conservation of resources (COR) theory, daily investment of resources (i.e., emotional and cognitive) are needed for surface and deep acting, which result in that day’s net resource loss or gain, respectively. We argue that over time, this creates accumulating resource losses or gain (i.e., spirals) that predict future strategy use, unless one recovers those resources after work. We conduct a novel and rigorous test of this idea, using two experience sampling methodology (ESM) studies of service workers, and applying latent difference score models to capture resource accumulation over time. Across both studies, results supported resource gain and loss spirals: Deep acting required an investment of emotional resources that created increasingly greater resource gains, while surface acting had accumulating losses to emotional resources each day, making it harder and harder to invest in deep acting in future days. Importantly, recovery after work, specifically low-effort activities, mitigated resource loss spirals from surface acting and enhanced resource gain spirals via deep acting. Results offer new evidence for untested theoretical assumptions about emotional labor and COR, while providing recommendations for how to replenish and protect service workers’ emotional resources over time.

Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious social problem, with pernicious consequences for families and children. Likewise, organizations may be disadvantaged due to lost productivity and medical expenses. Building on this literature, we argue that the coworkers of IPV victims may also experience elevated anxiety and depression, at least under certain conditions. We explored these ideas in a four-month, experience sampling methodology (ESM) study. The study was designed to examine anxiety and depression at work, as well as how the former impacts employee work goal progress. Tragically, eight weeks into data collection, an estranged husband murdered his former spouse and subsequently committed suicide. Consequently, we were able to assess potential changes on all three criterion variables, both among those with higher psychosocial proximity to the IPV (worked in the same job and in the same building) and lower psychosocial proximity (worked in different jobs and/or in different buildings). Even further, we also examine individual characteristics to determine who is most affected by a vicarious IPV. As expected, employees showed heightened levels of anxiety and depression after IPV against a coworker. Anxiety, in turn, was associated with reduced work goal progress. However, these effects only held among coworkers with high psychosocial proximity to the incident and those prone to anxiety.

Daily delegation as an antidote to the negative consequences of ego depletion

Effective leadership requires constant exertion of self-control at work. Yet, it is not always the case that leaders can wake up on the right side of the bed, feeling recharged and energized. In this study, we examine whether and how leaders’ experiences of ego depletion before work influence their perceived work goal progress, and what they can do on a daily basis to counteract these effects. Drawing from integrated self-control model and research on delegation, we argue that before-work ego depletion negatively influences leaders’ attention at work, and further hinders their work goal progress. We further theorize that daily delegation can mitigate the negative consequences of before-work ego depletion. Across two studies using experience sampling methodology, our hypotheses are supported with data collected from leaders in China and the United Kingdom. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The Bright and Dark Sides of Daily Challenging and Supportive Voice Behaviors

Employees contribute to their organizations by voicing concerns. They can provide suggestions that support current practices (supportive voice) and suggestions that challenge how things are done in the organization (challenging voice). Prior research suggests that there are both personal gains and costs associated with individual voice behavior. As such, we attempt to integrate the bright and dark sides of employee voice behavior and focus on the interpersonal daily costs and benefits experienced by employees who engage in these two types of voice behavior. Results from a daily-diary study using experience sampling methodology (ESM) find that challenging and supportive voice have differing personal costs and benefits for the individual employee. We find that supportive voice increases perceptions of prosocial impact, which in turn increases daily job satisfaction; we also find that supportive voice decreases ego depletion, which then reduces daily job stress. Daily challenging voice likewise increases perceptions of prosocial impact, which in turn increases daily job satisfaction; however, unlike supportive voice, challenging voice increases ego depletion, which then increases daily job stress. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

You are not feeling alone, but with peers

Previous work engagement studies have focused primarily on one individual, with little attention given to colleagues present around the individual when working. This daily research conceptualized affective dissimilarity and validated its operation based on the social comparison theory. Affective dissimilarity indicates the differences in affect state between team members and a particular individual. We hypothesized the moderating effect of positive and negative affective dissimilarity on the relationship between daily positive and negative affect and daily work engagement particularly. We applied the experience sampling methodology and tested our hypotheses using 10 consecutive working days of 221 employees (total=1,114 days) using hierarchical linear modeling. The results showed that positive affective dissimilarity does not moderate the effect of daily positive affect on daily work engagement, but negative affective dissimilarity moderates the effect of daily negative affect on daily work engagement. These findings suggest that the presence of others in a team is an important consideration in an individual’s daily work engagement experience, and, especially in terms of negative affect, individuals significantly compare their negative affect with their peers’ at their workplace.

Will Receiving Help Always Harm Your Self-Esteem? A Symbolic Interaction Theory Perspective

Previous research suggests that received help contains a mixture of threatening and supportive self-related elements, and recipient characteristics determine whether it is threatening or supportive drawn from threat to self-esteem model. In this study, with the overarching theory of symbolic interaction, we explain why and how receiving help brings variant effects on domains of competence-based self-esteem and relational-based self-esteem and its consequences of task crafting and relationship crafting, as well as its boundary condition of competence-contingent self-esteem. Utilizing an experience sampling methodology through which 111 employees were surveyed for 10 workdays, we find that receiving help increases recipients' relational-based self-esteem and it doesn't necessarily threaten competence-based self-esteem. Relational-based self-esteem and competence-based self-esteem in turn mediate the effects of receiving help on daily job crafting. Moreover, employees’ competence-contingent self-esteem influences the strength of the daily relationships between receiving help and relational-based self-esteem, as well as competence-based self-esteem. We conclude by discussing theoretical and practical implications of our multilevel model.

State mindfulness and affective well-being in the daily lives of middle-aged and older adults.

Contemporary conceptualizations of mindfulness refer to paying attention to the present moment with an open and nonjudgmental attitude. Empirical research is increasingly focusing on mindfulness as a dynamic and multifaceted state that can fluctuate across situations and time. The present study aimed to extend existing knowledge by using experience-sampling methodology to examine state-level mindfulness, pleasant/unpleasant event occurrence, and affective well-being in the everyday lives of middle-aged and older adults. A community-based sample of 157 participants aged 53-86 (M = 69.36, SD = 5.80) was recruited in May-June 2020. Participants completed assessments of multidimensional state mindfulness, hassle and uplift occurrence, and positive and negative affect on their smartphones, four times a day over 10 consecutive days. (Total observations: 4,761; M = 30.32, SD = 8.78.) Multilevel models indicated that the state mindfulness-facets present-moment attention and nonjudgmental acceptance were predictive of greater affective well-being in older adulthood. Furthermore, nonjudgmental acceptance appeared to buffer affective reactivity to daily hassles, and importantly, this effect was stronger at older ages. Mindful states did not appear to provide any further boost to uplift-related mood. The findings suggest that occasions characterized by relatively high present-moment attention and nonjudgmental acceptance may contribute to enhanced emotional well-being in later adulthood. Furthermore, adopting a nonevaluative and accepting orientation toward momentary experiences may be a psychological strategy that has particular utility for mitigating emotional reactivity to daily stressors with increasing age. Future research should investigate multidimensional state mindfulness and affective well-being for middle-aged and older adults participating in mindfulness-based interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The Medium is the Message: Effects of Mediums of Communication on Perceptions and Emotions in Social Anxiety Disorder

We examined the use of voice/text and visual mediums and their effects on perceptions and emotions in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Our sample included 88 individuals: 44 individuals with SAD and 44 non-socially-anxious (NSA) individuals. We used an experience sampling methodology (ESM) in which participants received daily links to online measures at random times during the day, for 21 days and reported on social interactions, emotions and perceptions. Results indicated that individuals with SAD used voice/text mediums to a greater extent and used visual mediums to a lesser extent compared to NSA individuals. However, despite preferring voice/text mediums, use of visual mediums resulted in immediate increases in positive perceptions and emotions for individuals with SAD. These findings were above and beyond the effect of depressive symptoms and remained when social anxiety was represented as a continuum of severity. This has important implications for exposure interventions in the treatment of SAD.

The Cost of Excessive Smartphone Use: Guilt Cross the Work-Family Domains.

Empirical evidence has accumulated showing that smartphone use at work has the double-edged sword impacts on work-related attitudes and behaviors, but little is known about how its effects transmit and spill over from the workplace to the family domain. Drawing upon compensatory ethics theory, we hypothesize positive associations of employees’ daily private smartphone use at work with their family role performance after work through feeling of guilt. Using an experience sampling methodology, we test our hypotheses in a sample of 101 employees who completed surveys across 10 consecutive workdays. Multilevel path analysis results showed that excessive smartphone use at work triggered experienced guilt, and had a positive indirect effect on family role performance via feeling of guilt. Furthermore, employees with high ability of emotion regulation can be better resolve own painful emotion by engaging in family role performance. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and propose future research directions are discussed.

"Fully recharged" evenings? The effect of evening cyber leisure on next-day vitality and performance through sleep quantity and quality, bedtime procrastination, and psychological detachment, and the moderating role of mindfulness.

Aligning with the recovery perspective, we propose a dual-path model to illustrate the effects of employees' evening cyber leisure on next-day work outcomes, namely, psychological vitality and performance. We argue that evening cyber leisure has contradicting effects on next-day performance and vitality through its effects on bedtime procrastination and psychological detachment, and in turn, sleep quantity and sleep quality. We also propose that trait mindfulness acts as an important boundary condition of the indirect effects of evening cyber leisure. We used an experience sampling methodology to collect 3 surveys per day for 10 days from 155 R&D employees of a biotech company. Our findings suggest that cyber leisure has a negative indirect effect on sleep quantity and sleep quality via bedtime procrastination, and a positive indirect effect on sleep quantity and sleep quality via evening psychological detachment. Additionally, sleep quantity was positively associated with performance, and sleep quality was positively associated with psychological vitality. Lastly, as trait mindfulness increased, the negative impact of cyber leisure on bedtime procrastination was mitigated, and the positive impact of cyber leisure on psychological detachment was enhanced. Theoretical and practical implications specific to the use of cyber devices for workplace recovery are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Trust in everyday life.

Although trust plays a pivotal role in many aspects of life, very little is known about the manifestation of trust and distrust in everyday life. In this work, we integrated several prior approaches to trust and investigated the prevalence and key determinants of trust (vs. distrust) in people's natural environments, using preregistered experience-sampling methodology. Across more than 4,500 social interactions from a heterogeneous sample of 427 participants, results showed high average levels of trust, but also considerable variability in trust across contexts. This variability was attributable to aspects of trustee perception, social distance, as well as 3 key dimensions of situational interdependence: conflict of interests, information (un)certainty, and power imbalance. At the dispositional level, average everyday trust was shaped by general trust, moral identity, and zero-sum beliefs. The social scope of most trust-related traits, however, was moderated by social distance: Whereas moral identity buffered against distrusting distant targets, high general distrust and low social value orientation amplified trust differences between close vs. distant others. Furthermore, a laboratory-based trust game predicted everyday trust only with regard to more distant but not close interaction partners. Finally, everyday trust was linked to self-disclosure and to cooperation, particularly in situations of high conflict between interaction partners' interests. We conclude that trust can be conceptualized as a relational hub that interconnects the social perception of the trustee, the relational closeness between trustor and trustee, key structural features of situational interdependence, and behavioral response options such as self-disclosure. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The role of state feelings of loneliness in the situational regulation of social affiliative behavior: Exploring the regulatory relations within a multilevel framework.

Previous empirical evidence suggests that the engagement in social interactions across different everyday contexts occurs in a manner highly responsive to a person's social affiliation needs. As has been shown repeatedly, social engagement (as well as disengagement) can be predicted from earlier situational need states, implying that homeostatic principles underlie a person's social affiliative behaviors. However, little is known about the role of emotion in these regulative processes. For this reason, the present exploratory study investigated the predictive role of state feelings of loneliness in subsequent engagement in social interaction. Since loneliness is conceptually associated with both the need to reaffiliate as well as self-protecting tendencies potentially hindering engagement in social contact, the study investigated the possibility of both increases and decreases in social contacts resulting from state feelings of loneliness. Adopting an experience sampling methodology (ESM), a sample of 65 participants was recruited from a local university and was followed for 14 days. Subjects were prompted several times a day to rate their feeling states and the quantity of social interactions, using a fixed interval assessment schedule. Statistical analyses using multilevel analysis indicated that state feelings of loneliness had complex quadratic effects upon subsequent social interaction, leading to both increases and decreases in subsequent social interaction. Moreover, these effects were contingent upon previous engagement in social interaction, implying spillover effects across social contexts that are conditionally mediated by feelings of loneliness. These findings clearly imply an important, albeit complex role of state feelings of loneliness in the regulation of social affiliation, both as a predictor and a consequence of social interaction. These exploratory findings are discussed against the background of methodological and conceptual limitations, and several recommendations for future studies are made.

A resources gain perspective on family outcomes of proactive helping behavior

PurposeDrawing on the work-home resources (W-HR) model, this study examines the ripple effects of proactive helping behavior at work on helpers' family relationship quality at home via positive affect and work-family interpersonal capitalization, and tests the moderating role of independent self-construal in the resource spillover process.Design/methodology/approachUsing an experience sampling methodology, data was collected (N = 382) from multiple sources in five consecutive working days. Multilevel path modeling was used to examine the hypotheses.FindingsThe results indicated that proactive helping other at work can generate affective resources for helpers, which in turn triggers them to share daily work experiences and feelings with their spouses at home, and strengthens their family relationship quality. Moreover, the effects of helping others on family relationship quality were more pronounced for helpers with relatively high independent self-construal.Originality/valueThe findings explore the enrichment effects and unintended family-related distal outcomes of helping behaviors for helpers, and contributes to the W-HR model by uncovering an affective-behavioral ripple mechanism linking work and family. Finally, our results identify the boundary condition, that proactive helping behaviors are more rewarding for helpers with higher independent self-construal.

Valuing emotional control in social anxiety disorder: A multimethod study of emotion beliefs and emotion regulation.

This study examines relationships between emotion beliefs and emotion regulation strategy use among people with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and a psychologically healthy control group. Using experience-sampling methodology, we tested group differences in 2 types of emotion beliefs (emotion control values and emotion malleability beliefs) and whether emotion beliefs predicted trait and daily use of cognitive reappraisal and emotion suppression. People with SAD endorsed higher emotion control values and lower emotion malleability beliefs than did healthy controls. Across groups, emotion control values were positively associated with suppression (but unrelated to reappraisal), and emotion malleability beliefs were negatively associated with suppression and positively associated with reappraisal. We also addressed 2 exploratory questions related to measurement. First, we examined whether trait and state measures of emotion regulation strategies were related to emotion control values in different ways and found similar associations across measures. Second, we examined whether explicit and implicit measures of emotion control values were related to daily emotion regulation strategy use in different ways-and found that an implicit measure was unrelated to strategy use. Results are discussed in the context of growing research on metaemotions and the measurement of complex features of emotion regulation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Personality dynamics at work: The effects of form, time, and context of variability

The study aimed to investigate the status of within-person state variability in neuroticism and conscientiousness as individual differences constructs by exploring their (a) temporal stability, (b) cross-context consistency, (c) empirical links to selected antecedents, and (d) empirical links to longer term trait variability. Employing a sample of professionals ( N = 346) from Australian organisations, personality state data together with situation appraisals were collected using experience sampling methodology in field and repeatedly in lab-like settings. Data on personality traits, cognitive ability, and motivational mindsets were collected at baseline and after two years. Contingent (situation contingencies) and non-contingent (relative SD) state variability indices were relatively stable over time and across contexts. Only a small number of predictive effects of state variability were observed, and these differed across contexts. Cognitive ability appeared to be associated with state variability under lab-like conditions. There was limited evidence of links between short-term state and long-term trait variability, except for a small effect for neuroticism. Some evidence of positive manifold was found for non-contingent variability. Systematic efforts are required to further elucidate the complex pattern of results regarding the antecedents, correlates and outcomes of individual differences in state variability.

To What Do I Owe This Visit? The Drawbacks and Benefits of In-Role and Non-Role Intrusions

Workplace intrusions—unexpected encounters initiated by another person that disrupt an individual’s work—are generally characterized as negative experiences that deplete resources, increase role and information overload, and promote strain. In contrast, our research argues that intrusions may also provide benefits to the employees who are intruded upon. Taking a multistudy approach, we investigate how intrusions impact the extent to which employees engage in their own work—work engagement—and the extent to which they engage in work with others—collaboration. We also investigate the indirect effects of intrusions on employees’ task-focused and person-focused citizenship behavior through these mechanisms. We tested our predictions with a within-person experimental critical incident study (Study 1), an experiment (Study 2), and an experience-sampling methodology study with a sample of scientists involved in research and development (Study 3). Our research investigates the dynamics of various types of workplace intrusions, with results suggesting that intrusions may lead to beneficial employee outcomes in addition to the adverse outcomes previously demonstrated in the literature. Given the ubiquitous nature of intrusions in organizations, our findings have both theoretical and practical significance.

Cognitive Control and Ruminative Responses to Stress: Understanding the Different Facets of Cognitive Control.

Rumination has been linked to the onset and course of depression. Theoretical models and empirical evidence suggest that deficits controlling negative material in working memory underlie rumination. However, we do not know which component of cognitive control (inhibition, shifting, or updating) contributes most to rumination, and whether different components predict the more maladaptive (brooding) versus the more adaptive (reflection) forms of rumination. We aimed to advance theory and research by examining the contribution of different facets of cognitive control to the level and trajectory of brooding and reflection. At baseline, participants completed three cognitive tasks that assessed their inhibition, shifting, and updating biases, respectively. Next, using experience sampling methodology, participants rated their level of rumination and negative affect nine times during the 48 h after their most stressful exam. At each time point, higher levels of brooding, but not reflection, predicted higher levels of negative affect at the next time point. Furthermore, several facets of shifting and inhibition, but not updating, predicted brooding immediately after the exam and its trajectory of change over 48 h. Additionally, difficulty inhibiting neutral words predicted both brooding and reflection. These findings inform theoretical models describing the role of cognitive control in brooding and reflection.

Unveiling an exclusive link: Predicting behavior with personality, situation perception, and affect in a preregistered experience sampling study.

Affect and situation perception are intertwined in any given situation, but the extent to which both predict behavior jointly and uniquely has not yet been systematically examined so far. Using 2 studies with experience sampling methodology (ESM), we examine how trait-like variables (Big Six, trait affect, general situation experience) and state-like variables (momentary affect, happiness, and situation perception) account for variance in self-reported behavioral states of the Big Six. In Study 1, we reanalyzed data from Sherman, Rauthmann, Brown, Serfass, and Jones (2015) and found that situation perception explained variance in self-reported behavior in logically coherent ways, but only after considering happiness as an additional predictor. These results were replicated in preregistered Study 2, in which positive and negative affect were additionally assessed as distinct variables. Based on both studies, we conclude that personality traits, affect, and situation perception contribute uniquely to the explanation of self-reported behavior in daily life. Importantly, situation perceptions and affect do overlap, but they are neither the same nor redundant with each other. Indeed, theoretically justified and logically coherent links between situation perceptions and behavioral states remain intact once affect is controlled for, while the links not predicted by theory disappear. These results have implications for personality theories as well as appraisal theories of emotion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Assessing the Within-Person Variability of Internal and External Sexual Consent

ABSTRACT Sexual consent is often conceptualized as an internal willingness to engage in sexual activity, which can be communicated externally to a sexual partner. Internal sexual consent comprises feelings of physical response, safety/comfort, arousal, agreement/want, and readiness; external sexual consent includes communication cues that may be explicit or implicit and verbal or nonverbal. Most previous research on sexual consent has focused on between-person differences; little attention has been devoted to examining the within-person variation of sexual consent across time. We conducted a 28-day experience sampling methodology (ESM) study with a sample of adults (N = 113) to assess fluctuations in internal and external sexual consent across a given person’s sexual events. We found that more than 50% and up to 80% of the variance in sexual consent scores could be accounted for by within-person variability. The type of sexual behavior participants engaged in during a sexual event predicted their internal and external consent. Further, internal consent feelings predicted external consent communication. Overall, our findings provided initial evidence regarding the extent that situational contexts are relevant for sexual consent. ESM study designs may be used to further investigate the potential contextual, intrapersonal, and interpersonal factors associated with internal and external sexual consent.