Emotional and cognitive reactivity: Validating a multilevel modeling approach to daily diary data

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Quantitative Psychology
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Multilevel modeling (MLM) is increasingly used for daily diary assessments of emotional reactivity (ER) and cognitive reactivity (CR).
• Validation of MLM methods for daily diary data is needed to confirm their reliability and utility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the convergent validity of MLM-based ER and CR estimates against conventional measures.
• To assess the construct validity of MLM-based ER and CR estimates in relation to depressive symptoms.

Main Methods:

• Utilized multilevel modeling (MLM) on daily diary data from 449 participants across 90+ universities.
• Examined the distinction between within-person and between-person aspects of ER and CR.
• Assessed convergent validity using established self-report questionnaires and construct validity using depressive symptom measures.

Main Results:

• Results support the successful extraction of within- versus between-person components of ER and CR from daily diary data.
• MLM-based ER and CR estimates demonstrated convergent validity through associations with self-report measures.
• MLM-based ER and CR estimates showed construct validity via their relationship with depressive symptoms.

Conclusions:

• The study validates the use of MLM for analyzing daily diary data to capture distinct within- and between-person reactivity.
• Distinguishing between these reactivity aspects provides valuable insights into psychological processes and their relation to mental health.