Emotions beyond the laboratory: Theoretical fundaments, study design, and analytic strategies for advanced ambulatory assessment
Introduction
Theories of emotion and accompanying research methods to evaluate different aspects of emotional experience have increasingly penetrated various fields of psychology and neighboring sciences like biology, economy, and neurosciences. Given the rapid expansion, it is important to examine essential features of this research enterprise. In this article, we first consider basic assessment paradigms that lie at the heart of almost all emotion research and theory, namely, the very common laboratory experimentation that still constitutes the basis of this research and the self-report data, in form of questionnaires and interviews, which are typically acquired. We then introduce alternative paradigms of ambulatory assessment and field experimentation, which, to date, remain relatively rarely used in psychology and emotion research. The differential benefits of these approaches, as well as their unique difficulties and pitfalls, will be considered. Consequently we also attempt to explain how specific methods may help to overcome important and overlooked assessment obstacles and advance scientific knowledge about emotion in important ways. We argue, from the perspective of theories of emotion, that laboratory and field approaches are fundamentally complementary and not opposing strategies: they offer data and insight from different angles. We propose that the affective sciences urgently need to develop clear, well thought-out programs of research that combine laboratory and naturalistic strategies.
Section snippets
The prevailing emotion research paradigms
Almost all current scientific knowledge about emotions is based on laboratory research or inferred from retrospective reports, although understanding real-life emotions is clearly the principal aim. Laboratory and self-report approaches were the most feasible strategies in the past, if not almost the only ones, and still possess distinct advantages: questionnaires and interviews provide easy access to emotion experience and self-observed behavior, and can be used quickly and cost-effectively to
The ambulatory emotion research paradigm
Many issues, undoubtedly, can only currently be investigated in the laboratory in a tractable way. Nevertheless, there are clearly other phenomena, such as emotion or stress at the workplace or in the family context, that require examination under naturalistic conditions. Unsurprisingly, an increasing number of studies consequently demonstrate added value of ambulatory approaches. Ambulatory assessment has progressed most rapidly in medical applications where the practical benefit is evident,
Methods of ambulatory assessment
Progress in psychological and psychophysiological ambulatory assessment has been documented in two volumes (Fahrenberg, 2001, Fahrenberg and Myrtek, 1996) covering a variety of clinical and non-clinical research questions. These methods can be employed to assess a wide range of physiological and psychological parameters. In the following section, we treat specific methodologies in relation to emotion studies. We also discuss difficulties of data collection and interpretation that are unique to
Study design decisions
Designing an ambulatory study can be a challenging task, due to the quantity and variety of stimuli experienced in a real-world environment as well as the fact that the literature on ambulatory investigations is relatively sparse and recent. Laboratory studies on emotion, on the other hand, have a long tradition, and there are many examples of study protocols that have proven to work (Friedman, 2010, Kreibig, 2010, for reviews). Consequently, we attempt here to simplify and systematize
Summary and outlook into the future
In this article, we have attempted to summarize and describe a wide range of arguments in support of increased use of ambulatory assessment in emotion research, as well as provide a number of design options that may facilitate successful ambulatory research. It is becoming increasingly obvious that naturalistic studies employing ambulatory monitoring techniques can address essential and often ignored issues in emotion research. Ambulatory research strategies have the potential to go beyond the
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements
Preparation of this manuscript was supported by grant 105311-105850 (FW) from the Swiss National Science Foundation, the EC 6th Framework Project EUCLOCK (No. 018741) (FW), Basel Scientific Society (FW), grant KLS-02038-02-2007 from the Swiss Cancer League (PG) and grant NCT00106275 from the Samueli Foundation (PG). We would like to thank Andrea Meyer for advice on statistical issues.
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