Measuring Continuous Affect in Daily Life With Intensity Profile Drawings

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Affective Science
• Methodology

Background:

• Intensive longitudinal studies often have gaps in data collection between assessments.
• Continuous affect drawings (CADs) were developed to capture affective experiences during these intervals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate CADs as an innovative method for measuring affective experiences over time.
• To assess the informational gain and utility of CADs compared to traditional methods.

Main Methods:

• An experience sampling study with 115 participants who provided momentary affect ratings six times daily.
• Participants also created continuous affect drawings and reported affective events between assessments.
• Data analysis focused on informational gain, categorization of affect peaks/valleys, and correlations with momentary ratings.

Main Results:

• CADs provided an average of 7% informational gain over linear interpolation.
• Positive and negative affect peaks and valleys were identified, occurring once daily per person on average.
• The probability of detecting affect changes increased with reported affective events.
• Drawings correlated positively with momentary affect scores but predicted them less effectively.

Conclusions:

• Continuous affect drawings offer a comprehensive understanding of affective experiences between assessments.
• This method provides a unique perspective on affect dynamics and emotional fluctuations.
• CADs complement traditional momentary assessments by capturing between-assessment affect changes.