Meinrad Perrez

Ambulatory Assessment - Monitoring Behavior in Daily Life Settings A Behavioral-Scientific Challenge for Psychology

Ambulatory assessment refers to the use of computer-assisted methodology for self-reports, behavior records, or physiological measurements, while the participant undergoes normal daily activities. Since the 1980s, portable microcomputer systems and physiolog- ical recorders/analyzers have been developed for this purpose. In contrast to their use in medicine, these new methods have hardly entered the domain of psychology. Questionnaire methods are still preferred, in spite of the known deficiencies of retrospective self-reports. Assessment strategies include: continuous monitoring, monitoring with time- and event-sampling methods, in-field psychological testing, field experimentation, interactive assessment, symptom monitoring, and self-management. These approaches are innovative and address ecological validity, context specificity, and are suitable for practical applications. The advantages of this methodology, as well as issues of acceptance, compliance, and reactivity are discussed. Many technical developments and research contributions have come from the German-speaking countries and the Netherlands. Nonetheless, the current Decade of Behavior (APA) calls for a more widespread use of such techniques and developments in assessment. This position paper seeks to make the case for this approach by demonstrating the advantages - and in some domains - necessities of ambulatory monitoring methodology for a behavioral science orientation in psychology.

Prävention kindlicher Verhaltensstörungen

Zusammenfassung. In dem vorliegenden Uberblicksartikel werden Programme zur universellen, selektiven und indizierten Pravention psychischer Storungen bei Vor- und Grundschulkindern beschrieben und hinsichtlich ihrer Effektivitat bewertet. Wenn man strenge Kriterien zur Beurteilung der empirischen Effizienz anlegt, dann gibt es international sieben universelle und 13 selektiv/indizierte wahrscheinlich wirksame Praventionsprogramme, die psychopathologischen Symptomen wie Aggression, Depression oder Angst bei Kindern vorbeugen konnen. In Deutschland gibt es nur wenige solche Ansatze, von denen sich die meisten noch im Evaluationsprozess befinden. Nur drei universelle Programme konnen als vermutlich effektiv eingestuft werden. Auf der anderen Seite werden eine Vielzahl von Programmen angeboten und verbreitet, die keine empirische Absicherung erfahren haben oder sich als nicht wirksam erwiesen haben. Es ist daher dringend notwendig, vorhandene Ansatze einer Wirksamkeitsprufung zu unterziehen und die Verbreitun...

Touch as an Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Process in Couples’ Daily Lives: The Mediating Role of Psychological Intimacy

Interpersonal touch seems to promote physical health through its effects on stress-sensitive parameters. However, less is known about the psychological effects of touch. The present study investigates associations between touch and romantic partners’ affective state in daily life. We hypothesized that this association is established by promoting the recipient’s experience of intimacy. Both partners of 102 dating couples completed an electronic diary 4 times a day during 1 week. Multilevel analyses revealed that touch was associated with enhanced affect in the partner. This association was mediated by the partner’s psychological intimacy. Touch was also associated with intimacy and positive affect in the actor. Finally, participants who were touched more often during the diary study week reported better psychological well-being 6 months later. This study provides evidence that intimate partners benefit from touch on a psychological level, conveying a sense of strengthened bonds between them that enhances affect and well-being.

Ambulantes Assessment - Verhalten im Alltagskontext erfassen

Zusammenfassung. Ambulantes Assessment erfasst Selbstberichte, Verhaltensweisen oder physiologische Messwerte mit computer-unterstutzen Methoden, wahrend die Untersuchten ihrem normalen Tageslauf nachgehen. Seit den 1980er Jahren wurden dazu portable Mikrocomputer und Messysteme entwickelt. Im Unterschied zur Medizin werden diese neuen Methoden in der Psychologie bis heute nur zogernd genutzt. Hier dominieren weiterhin Fragebogen, trotz der bekannten Mangel retrospektiver Selbstbeurteilungen. Zu den ambulanten Assessmentstrategien gehoren u.a.: Kontinuierliches Monitoring, zeit- oder ereignis-abhangiges Monitoring, Feld-Diagnostik, Feld-Experiment, Interaktives Monitoring, Symptom-Monitoring und Selbst-Management. Es sind innovative Ansatze mit Perspektive auf okologische Validitat, Kontextbezug und Praxisnahe. Die methodischen Vorzuge des Ambulanten Assessment sowie Akzeptanz, Compliance und Reaktivitat werden erlautert. Viele der technischen Entwicklungen und Forschungsarbeiten stammen aus den deutschsp...

How to assess social regulation of stress and emotions in daily family life? A computer-assisted family self-monitoring system (FASEM-C)

A major problem for scientific and practical work in many branches of psychology is the reliable access to phenomena under study. Traditional assessment procedures are often reliant on retrospective recall, self report measures and/or laboratory simulations. All these have their strengths and weaknesses. Ideally observations of people’s behaviour and interactions, and the monitoring of thoughts and feelings, should be of real events as they occur. This paper focuses on some methodological and reliability issues associated with development in handheld computer self-recording systems and describes a new computerassisted self-monitoring system for emotional processes in families with adolescents. The method is based on simultaneous self-observations of family members older than 13 years. The paper describes the procedures involved in using this approach and demonstrates how to obtain indicators for reactivity, reliability and some aspects of validity. Copyright C 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Deeds matter: daily enacted responsiveness and intimacy in couples' daily lives.

Perceived responsiveness is a fundamental ingredient of satisfying romantic relationships, especially insofar as it facilitates the development of intimacy. This study investigates how partners concrete responsive acts-named here enacted responsiveness-affect the perception of responsiveness in the daily life of dating couples. Additionally, the subsequent association of perceived partner responsiveness with intimacy was examined. Data from both partners in 102 young heterosexual couples were gathered simultaneously 4 times a day over one week. Multilevel analysis within the framework of the actor-partner interdependence mediation model showed that perception of responsiveness is predicted by partners enacted responsiveness. However, own enacted responsiveness also predicts own perception of responsiveness in the partner, suggesting a projection process. Perception of responsiveness, in turn, predicts not only own but also partners feelings of intimacy, demonstrating an intimacy enhancing effect of being perceived as a responsive partner. Mediation analysis showed that perception of responsiveness mediates the effects of both own and partners enacted responsiveness on intimacy. It can be concluded that the development of intimacy in the daily life of romantic couples is truly an interactive process that ought to be investigated from a dyadic perspective.

Associations Between Measures of Emotion and Familial Dynamics in Normative Families With Adolescents

The Family Life Scale (FLS), which includes the dimensions of Cohesion, Adaptability, Communication and Satisfaction, and two measures of emotion were applied to a German-speaking sample of adolescents and their parents in Switzerland. The main goal of the study was to assess the associations between the measures in order to increase our understanding of the dynamics involving emotional and familial factors, particularly in adolescents. Analyses revealed different patterns of association to emerge according to gender in both samples. Indeed, in girls, optimal family functioning was associated with Empathy, while similar trends were found in mothers. In boys, optimal family functioning was associated with Self-esteem, while similar trends were found in fathers. Overall, our data suggest that Empathy and Self-esteem play a significant role in the perception of family dynamics which may, reciprocally, affect emotional experiences in family members.

The effectiveness of a coping-focused prevention approach: A two-year longitudinal study

This article focuses upon a new preventive approach designed to improve personal stress management skills. The Coping Enhancement Training (CET) is derived from the Couples Coping Enhancement Training (CCET) and encompasses both an individual and a dyadic aspect. In this study, only the individual element is described. The training is based upon the transactional stress concepts of Lazarus and his coworkers and the further development of this approach by Perrez and Reicherts (1992). Personal coping skills are practiced over a six-hour period by means of theoretical, diagnostic and practical work. This article presents the rationale and content of the program, as well as data concerning the effectiveness of this approach after a period of two years. The data shows that subjects participating in the program displayed better individual coping skills (e.g. active problem-solving and positive self-verbalization) after the training and that they relied upon dysfunctional coping strategies (e.g. rumination and blaming strategies) less often even after two years.

Affective interdependence in married couples' daily lives: are there cultural differences in partner effects of anger?

The experience of anger in close relationships can be detrimental. Existing research suggests cultural differences in how people deal with negative emotions. In particular, anger seems to play a more disruptive interpersonal role in cultures where collectivistic cultural values are strongly endorsed. Our goal was to examine whether differences in the interpersonal contingencies of anger across contexts and persons were linked to the endorsement of collectivistic values. We examined this possibility using electronic diary data, collected multiple times per day over the course of a week. Data were collected from 623 couples in eight cultural contexts. We performed dyadic multilevel analyses to examine partner effects of anger on experienced anger and depressed mood the next day, and whether these effects were moderated by cultural context and by the endorsement of collectivistic values. Results suggested that cultural differences existed. We found partner effects of anger in couples from more collectivistic cultural contexts, and in couples who endorsed collectivistic values more strongly. Overall, the results demonstrate that culture is intertwined with daily psychological processes in close relationships.

Computer-aided self-observation psychological stressors in an ICU

SummaryWe have developed a procedure for a computer-aided self-observation method in stressful situations. Staff members of an ICU recorded their experiences on a computer placed in the ICU, immediately after having experienced a stressful event. The computer asked for and stored psychologically relevant information about cognitive, affective and behavioural aspects. An external stress memory of an ICU was established, allowing a personal/institution-orientated stress diagnosis to be made on the basis of 192 episodes.Sixteen nurses in an intensive care unit in a Swiss hospital used this methodology for 12 weeks. One hundred and ninety-two stressful events were recorded (12 episodes per person), forming a good sample of the stressful episodes for the unit. To the same 16 nurses and 31 nurses at the same hospital (N total=47) the Nursing Stress Scale was administered. The results from both groups showed that problems dealing with death and work load were predominant. Nurse characteristics such as levels of training (unskilled, skilled) and experience (number of years working as a nurse) were analysed by different statistical procedures and related to their stress experience.