Diary Methods: Capturing Life as it is Lived

“The perils of retrospection have been reviewed elsewhere (e.g., Nisbett & Wilson 1977, Ross 1989, Tourangeau et al. 2000).”

“First, it is dif fi cult to capture the nuances of daily familial interactions with sampling that is done in six-month or yearly intervals (Bolger et al., 2003).”

“Ecological momentary assessment is an alternative approach that minimizes this bias by capturing individuals’ experiences in real time and in their natural environments (21, 22).”

“For instance, the conventional daily diary design primarily aims to examine relations among variables on the day-to-day level (Bolger et al., 2003), while ecological momentary assessment often involves multiple measurement occasions within one day (e.g., four times a day over nine days, Evans et…”

“However, traditional methods often involve significant manual work, which can be time-consuming and inefficient[4].”

“One such design that has been shown to reliably re fl ect day-to-day fl uctuations, is a daily diary design which are typically “ self-report instruments used repeatedly to examine ongoing experiences ” (Bolger et al., 2003, p. 580).”

“…using multilevel modelling based on diary studies in the literature on occupational health psychology, organizational behaviour (Beal & Weiss, 2003; Bolger et al., 2003; Gabriel, Koopman, et al., 2018; Gabriel, Podsakoff, et al., 2019; West & Hepworth, 1991), and in the literature investigating…”

“…interactions and adolescents’ self-esteem is tested using the daily diary method, which obtains more reliable and accurate data than those from traditional retrospective method by captures teenagers’ self-esteem and their perceived relationship with mothers in real life (Bolger et al., 2003).”

“It is important to acknowledge, however, that these methods continue to rely on self- (or partner-) reports, with their attendant strengths and weaknesses (Bolger et al., 2003).”

“Moreover, the micro-level approach allowed articulating intra-individual or within-person variability with inter-individual differences [57] in the relationships between SRC (e.g., mood variability) and EXT symptoms.”

“The study is embedded in the dyadic [30] and daily-diary [31] approaches, allowing for the control of dyad interdependence and examination of time-varying effects (i.”

“The two-wave longitudinal design has continued to dominate the research scene [54].”

“In order to capture the participants’ lived and subjective experiences an anonymous open format diary study was used as the main method in this study (see, e.g., Bolger et al. 2003; Ohly et al. 2010).”

“Diary studies are one particular class of research methods in which “self-report instruments [are] used repeatedly … to investigate social, psychological, and physiological processes, within everyday situations…” (Bolger et al., 2003, p. 578).”

“Using Bolger et al. (2003) event-based format with guided outlines, participants recorded strategy use, difficulties, outcomes, and course perceptions during assigned tasks.”

“This study employed a daily diary approach to collect repeated data over multiple days to better reflect natural variations in experiences and behaviors (Bolger & Laurenceau, 2013; Bolger et al., 2003; Iida et al., 2012).”

“In addition, we collected 123 diary entries from 17 participating households, which gave us unique insights into the experience of participating in the experiment (Bolger et al., 2003).”

“Intensive longitudinal methods, such as daily diary studies, are able to assess both between-and within-person variation, and also confer improved ecological validity over cross-sectional designs (17).”

“Second, such techniques allow researchers to measure “life as it is lived” (Bolger, Davis, & Rafaeli, 2003), suggesting ESM techniques can enhance our understanding of nos-talgia in real-world settings.”

“…and minimise biases in retrospective recall, as people tend to remember distinct events more readily than aggregate responses and checklists (Bolger et al., 2003; Crosswell & Lockwood, 2020; Genet & Siemer, 2012; Heron et al., 2022), with some people overestimating or under-estimating the…”

“…daily diary method allows researchers to examine participants’ behaviors repeatedly over time with few recollection errors and retrospective bias (Bolger et al., 2003), the diary entries are still reliant on participant’s perceptions of their behaviors and lived experiences, which could be…”

“The findings of the current study led to a recommendation for further diary studies to explore more fully how caregivers and care recipients interact in everyday life (Bolger et al., 2003; Nezlek, 2020).”

“It is commonly collected through daily diaries (Bolger et al., 2003), experience sampling method (ESM; Hektner et al., 2007), and ecological momentary assessment (EMA; Smyth & Stone, 2003).”

“Note, however, that the current study focused on a within-person analysis which explored fluctuations within participants’ state-level experiences; therefore, the sample is likely to have been informative in this regard (Bolger et al., 2003).”

“However, daily diary designs are subjected to recall bias as they rely on recalls to capture experiences over the day and may not be representative of the subject experiences [13,42].”

“The leisure boredom scale was person-centered and separated into occasion-specific and person-specific components (Bolger et al., 2003).”

“…instance, experience sampling (Scollon et al., 2003), ambulatory assessment (Fahrenberg et al., 2007), ecological momentary assessment (Smyth & Stone, 2003), and daily diaries (Bolger et al., 2003) make it possible to collect far larger data sets for which our proposed approach would be a good fit.”

“Other methods, such as long-term diary research [9], daily reconstruction methods [32], and the experience sampling method (ESM) [43] are used to assess the usability of software during use.”

“The diary method contributes to understanding people ’ s social practices in a larger context (Bolger et al., 2003).”

“Some people became fed up with the pandemic and the diary approach ran the risk of not collecting enough data due to potential drop outs or peoples ’ unwillingness to enroll (e.g., [31]).”

“…al., 2019; Jaya et al., 2017; Narita et al., 2020; Switaj et al., 2014) Although experimental settings may differ strongly from daily life settings (Bolger et al., 2003), this finding also corroborates with experimental findings of induced feelings of loneliness leading to a brief increase of…”

“The use of diaries as a method of qualitative data collection has been endorsed by researchers (e.g., Bolger et al., 2003; Milligan et al., 2005) because it allows individuals to record events and experiences regularly and as they happen.”

“Second, nearly all studies examining these associations use retrospective designs, which increases the likelihood of biased recall and sentiment override (Bolger et al., 2003).”

“Intensive longitudinal studies (e.g., ecological momentary assessments or daily diary studies) allow to examine these processes in individuals’ everyday lives (Bolger et al. 2003; Mehl and Con-ner 2012; Trull and Ebner-Priemer 2013).”

“In other words, diary studies provide researchers with the opportunity of capturing “ life as it is lived ” (Bolger, Davis, & Rafaeli, 2003).”

“Nonetheless, it has to be taken into account that these are Trait x Situation interaction effects within a daily life context that is rich in noise and typically produces small effect sizes (Bolger et al., 2003).”

“This type of repeated data collection, also referred to as “ experience sampling ” or Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA (15, 16)) aims to reduce recall bias by condensing the time between the experience and the report.”

“…the connection between race and place is multifaceted; essentially places can also become raced, just as racialised places are socially constructed, they can also re-produce racialised identities through specific historical and geographical contexts (Bonilla-Silva 2004; Inwood and Yarbrough 2010).”

“Fall calendars or fall diaries are considered the gold standard for an exact recording of fall frequency.(11) However, these can only be used prospectively and are connected with a high level of effort for patients and caregivers.”

“They measure not only closer to the object under investigation but also reduce memory bias of retrospective questionnaires (Bolger et al., 2003; Ohly et al., 2010; Rausch et al., 2017).”

“Daily diary studies encompass a wide range of designs, including time-based (fixed-interval or variable-interval) and event-contingent protocols (Bolger et al., 2003).”

“Beyond Studies 1 and 2, it seemed important to link openness-related preferences to patterns of goal pursuit and positive affect in daily life, using a daily diary protocol (Bolger et al., 2003).”

“Hence, in the analysiswewere able to control for the effects of the calendric day, which has received attention in previous studies (Bolger et al., 2003; Sheldon et al., 1996).”

“One key benefit of the daily diary method is its high ecological validity; namely, its ability to capture the partners’ lives in their natural context (Bolger et al., 2003).”

“The list of activities was derived from focus groups of adolescents and has been used successfully in previous studies (Bolger et al., 2003; Fuligni et al., 2009; Hardway & Fuligni, 2006).”

“Experience sampling data share cross-sectional time-series characteristics containing a hierarchal structure, whereby measures are clustered in three levels: Beeps are nested in days which are nested within participants (Bolger et al., 2003).”

“This approach enables the capture of a variability of coping, not only between people, but also within people (Bolger et al., 2003).”

“Second, by focusing on recent interactions, our approach reduces memory decay, as earlier experiences are more prone to forgetting or reconstruction errors [4, 7].”

“The attrition rate in this study was consistent with those observed in previous diary studies (Bolger et al., 2003; Conner and Lehman, 2012).”

“Daily diary methods and ecological momentary assessments could track such actions in real time (Bolger et al., 2003; Shiffman et al., 2008; Iida et al., 2012), including decisions to speak up in meetings, pursue goals despite criticism, or act against group pressure.”

“A researcher diary—functioning both as a reflective and observational tool—documented pedagogical decisions, student responses in focus groups, and methodological tensions, enhancing the credibility and depth of qualitative interpretation (Bolger, Davis, and Rafaeli 2003; Denzin 2009).”

“This method involving individuals recording their daily activities and emotions (Bolger et al., 2003).”

“This methodology is optimal for investigating well-being within the ambit of daily existence, reducing biases in memory reconstruction, and augmenting ecological validity (Bai et al., 2021; Bolger et al., 2003).”

“Diary-type methods, such as ecological momentary assessment (EMA) [11], have long been an important way to gather in situ measurements of a patient’s experience or mental state, and this type of active data collection has been made easier by the prevalence of mobile devices [12].”

“This discrepancy indicates that a couple’s traits or characteristics associated with common dyadic coping may not consistently predict the levels or changes in outcomes when comparing different dyads [58].”

“They also reduce the level of retrospection by minimizing the time lapse between an experience and the account of that experience [2].”

“…dual-earner couples with children who were both working from home during the pandemic, this recruitment strategy was considered the most effective way of recruiting the necessary number of participants to enable rich insights into research questions posed (Radcliffe, 2013; Bolger et al., 2003).”

“…to mitigate method artifacts due to the daily data, including spurious findings as a consequences of time or unmeasured time-varying confounders (Bolger et al., 2003; Bolger & Laurenceau, 2013) and day of the week (weekday, weekend) as research suggests that differences between weekend and…”

“To help counter the potential participant burden that can be associated with diaries (Bolger et al., 2003) and to encourage commitment, participants could choose from various diary formats to record entries.”

“3) Packback Diary Study: A diary study serves as a method for gathering qualitative data by asking participants to document their thoughts, experiences, and activities during a specified time frame [21], [22].”

“Collecting diary entries in real time is known to reduce recall bias by collecting data at the level of feedback events and therefore not relying on generalised reflections of feed-back provision over a period of time, whilst enabling analysis of within-and between-person variability [25].”