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Key Words experience sampling method, longitudinal designs, electronic data collection, self-report measures, multilevel models
* Abstract In diary studies, people provide frequent reports on the events and experiences of their daily lives. These reports capture the particulars of experience in a way that is not possible using traditional designs. We review the types of research questions that diary methods are best equipped to answer, the main designs that can be used, current technology for obtaining diary reports, and appropriate data analysis strategies. Major recent developments include the use of electronic forms of data collection and multilevel models in data analysis. We identify several areas of research opportunities: 1. in technology, combining electronic diary reports with collateral measures such as ambulatory heart rate; 2. in measurement, switching from measures based on between-person differences to those based on within-person changes; and 3. in research questions, using diaries to (a) explain why people differ in variability rather than mean level, (b) study change processes during major events and transitions, and (c) study interpersonal processes using dyadic and group diary methods.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Gordon Allport, writing in 1942, pointed out that an acquaintance with the "particulars of life" is the beginning of all psychological knowledge-scientific or otherwise. "Psychology needs to concern itself with life as it is lived, with significant total-processes of the sort revealed in consecutive and complete life documents" (Allport 1942, p. 56). This chapter reviews the state of the art in research answering Allport's call, broadly defined today as diary methods. Methods for documenting the particulars of life have improved considerably over the years. Diaries, self-report instruments used repeatedly to examine ongoing experiences, offer the opportunity to investigate social, psychological, and physiological processes, within everyday situations. Simultaneously, they recognize the importance of the contexts in which these processes unfold. Thus, diaries are designed to capture the "little experiences of everyday life that fill most of our working time and occupy the vast majority of our conscious attention" (Wheeler & Reis 1991, p. 340).
A fundamental benefit of diary methods is that they permit the examination of reported events and experiences in their natural, spontaneous context, providing information complementary to that obtainable by more traditional designs (Reis 1994). Another is the dramatic reduction in the...