Chapter fifteen - Methods for Studying Everyday Experience in Its Natural Context

Summary

This chapter describes everyday experience methods from both conceptual and practical vantage points. It begins with a conceptual rationale, discussing the paradigm's perspective on social behavior and its contribution to social psychological methods. Everyday experience studies have three general purposes: establishing the prevalence and/or qualities of phenomena, testing theoretically generated hypotheses and propositions, and serving as a discovery technique for generating new hypotheses. The chapter reviews several protocols relevant to research in social and personality psychology. It highlights representative studies employing everyday experience methods. The chapter also reviews the practical matters arising in everyday experience research and statistical techniques for capitalizing on the extensive data sets typically obtained. It considers the role of everyday experience studies in complementing other methods in programmatic research. Everyday experience methods, in conjunction with laboratory and global self-report strategies, offer a substantial alternative with which to enhance the validity of a research program.