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  • Research In Brief: Using Mobile Phones to Collect Daily Experience Data From College Undergraduates
  • Russell D. Ravert (bio), Shaun I. Calix (bio), and Michael J. Sullivan (bio)

This research brief describes our recent efforts collecting daily experience data from college undergraduates at a large midwestern U.S. university through mobile phone text messaging. By daily experience data, we mean data that are collected at multiple points from individuals within their natural context, over a period of time. This approach to data collection provides a way to study phenomena under the conditions in which they naturally occur and to examine how those phenomena progress over time or across contexts (Bolger, Davis, & Rafaeli, 2003).

Gathering data from individuals at multiple points over the course of time as a way to better understand their experiences has been used as early as the 1920s. Since then, the methods of collecting that data have evolved alongside technological advances, with early paper and alarm watches eventually giving way to beepers and personal digital assistant (PDA) devices (Scollon, Kim-Prieto, & Diener, 2003). A variety of approaches are possible, including (a) time-based designs, in which participants are asked to respond at fixed intervals (e.g., at 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. each day), (b) event-based designs, in which participants are asked to respond when a certain event occurs (e.g., before each meal), and (c) interval-based designs, in which participants are asked to respond whenever prompted (e.g., by an electronic beeper). In the current study, we examined the feasibility of an interval-based approach that might be considered a natural extension of these methods: collecting data from college students via text messaging.

The Experience Sampling Method

The experience sampling method (ESM) is a term associated with interval-based designs in which participants provide daily experience data when they are signaled at various (usually random) times during the day and across an extended period of time (Hektner, Schmidt, & Csikszentmihaly, 2007; Scollon et al., 2003). Other compatible terms include ecological momentary assessment (Stone, Shiffman, & DeVries, 1999) and time-based diary research (Bolger et al., 2003). Collecting data through this method has several strengths compared with traditional survey or laboratory-based methodologies. First, experience-sampling allows a useful way to explore the link between context and behavior or feelings, because data can be collected while the participant is within a particular context. Second, time-based methods allow the ability to assess changes that occur within individuals over time or across situations. Third, the accuracy of data need not rely on participants’ retrospective memory, as is often required in traditional survey methods.

A large number of ESM studies have focused on adolescence. Topics of ESM [End Page 343] research conducted with that population have included studies of time use (Larson, 1989), the context of mood (Larson, Moneta, Richards, & Wilson, 2002), student engagement during instructional activities (Shernoff, Csikszentmihalyi, Schneider, & Shernoff, 2003), and the relationship of cortisol levels to emotions (Adam, 2006). ESM methods have also been utilized to better understand the experiences of college students. For example, in order to study the experiences of Black students on predominately White campuses, Cole and Yip (2008) provided Black college freshmen with electronic pagers and paper data diaries. Over a 10-day period, participants logged data regarding their location and mood whenever they were beeped. The multiple data points allowed the researchers to explore the relationship between participants’ emotional states in school versus nonschool settings. Other research topics studied in college settings through daily experience data methods have included motivators of alcohol use (Hussong, 2003), and events evoking social anxiety (M. R. Lee, Okazaki, & Yoo, 2006). In their study of risk perceptions among college students, Hogarth, Portell, and Cuxart (2007) used an event-based ESM design, but utilized students’ own mobile phones rather than providing pagers. In that study, participants were supplied with questionnaires that they were asked to complete whenever they received a text message from the researcher.

Researchers are not limited to having participants complete responses on paper, however. In a number of EMS studies, participants have been provided with PDA devices so that they could enter responses directly into those devices whenever prompted (for a...

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