Using the time-varying autoregressive model to study dynamic changes in situation perceptions and emotional reactions

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Individual Differences
• Personality Psychology

Background:

• Personality is viewed as a system of intra-individual processes that evolve over time through environmental interactions.
• Understanding individual psychological dynamics requires methods that account for personal variability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate changes in intra-individual dynamics of situation perception and emotions.
• To compare a semiparametric time-varying autoregressive (TV-AR) model with a standard autoregressive (AR) model for assessing psychological process non-stationarity.

Main Methods:

• Idiographic approach analyzing individual time series data.
• Collected data from two adolescents over 19 days, measuring personality, situation perceptions, and emotions five times daily.
• Applied standard AR and TV-AR models to assess intra-individual changes in mean levels and inertia.

Main Results:

• The TV-AR model identified significant changes in the dynamics of situation perceptions and emotions for an adolescent characterized by lower honesty, higher emotionality, higher extraversion, and higher agreeableness.
• For the other adolescent, the standard AR model was more suitable, indicating a lack of dynamic changes in their psychological processes.
• Demonstrated differential model performance based on individual personality trait configurations.

Conclusions:

• Psychological process dynamics in situation perception and emotions can differ significantly between individuals, influenced by their unique personality traits.
• An idiographic approach offers advantages in detecting and understanding individual-specific changes in perceptions and emotional reactions.
• This study represents a foundational step in illustrating the utility of personalized analytical methods in psychology.