A study of episodes of emotion in daily life using the experience sampling method

grantor: University of TorontoStructured diaries of incidents of emotion were collected from 65 participants using the experience sampling method. Participants carried on their persons an electronic organizer which beeped randomly throughout the day, prompting them to complete an emotion diary, thrice daily for a three-day period. This method tended to capture incidents of emotion that were less intense and of longer durations than those reported by previous researchers. Gender differences were observed in that women tended to experience both positive and negative emotion more intensely than men. Thoughts and bodily sensations were more frequently associated with negative emotions. Sixty per cent of emotion episodes were predicted correctly from the goal-relevant events that elicited them. With respect to the relationship between mood and emotion, this study found that anxious participants experienced both positive and negative emotion for longer durations than non-anxious participants. However, anxious participants did not experience more intense and more frequent episodes of negative emotion than non-anxious participants.M.A