Experience Sampling Method: Measuring the Quality of Everyday Life

Experience Sampling Method: Measuring the Quality of Everyday Life is the first book to bring together the theoretical foundations and practical applications of this indispensable methodology. Authors Joel M. Hektner, Jennifer A. Schmidt, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi provide fascinating information for anyone interested in how people go about their daily lives.

Key Features:  

• Provides a step-by-step guide: In nontechnical prose, the book details the logistics of carrying out an Experience Sampling Method (ESM) study and guides the reader through every step of the process, from conceiving the research question to analyzing the data. In addition, a through treatment of the measurement of Csikszentmihalyi′s flow describes all of the different ways in which flow can be measured.
• Includes real-life examples: This book gives readers useful tips to consider before implementing a study, based on real-life examples. It illustrates how the ESM has been used to address a diverse array of topics in social science research including the phenomenology of everyday life, gender differences, family relations, work experiences, cross-cultural differences and similarities, school experiences, and mental health.
• Offers a complete overview of the foundations for ESM: This is the first source to compile findings from a large and increasingly diverse research literature documenting the use of the ESM. A comprehensive overview is given of issues affecting reliability and validity of the method and empirical evidence of its psychometric properties.

Intended Audience:  
This is a must-have resource for social and behavioral scientists who are studying the human experience in everyday life and need guidelines for how to validate and present their data. It can also be used in various advanced undergraduate and graduate research methods courses in the departments of Education, Educational Psychology, Psychology, Nursing, and Health.

Joel M. Hektner is an Associate Professor in Human Development and Family Science at North Dakota State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Psychology: Human Development from the University of Chicago and an A.B. in psychology from Princeton University. Before arriving at NDSU, Hektner was a research scientist in child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Minnesota. He has used ESM to study  the developmental implications of longitudinal changes in adolescent experiences of flow and has written chapters on ESM in several books. In collaboration with students, he has conducted ESM studies of college students, adolescents in residential treatment, and LGB emerging adults. His research interests primarily involve family and peer factors that promote optimal development and evaluations of preventive interventions for antisocial behavior. He is presently working on strategies to strengthen positive peer culture among elementary and middle school children, and to promote more positive parent-child relations.

Jennifer Schmidt is Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology at Northern Illinois University. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology: Human Development from the University of Chicago. Her current research focuses on resilience, motivation, and adolescent engagement in daily challenges. She has been conducting research involving the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) for over 10 years. Dr. Schmidt is former Director of Research at the Alfred P. Sloan Center on Parents, Children, and Work at the University of Chicago, where she directed an ESM study involving parents and children from 500 families across the United States. Her work to date has involved samples of children, adolescents, and adults. She has conducted ESM research within the context of families, elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. Dr. Schmidt has trained national and international teams of researchers in ESM study design, administration and analysis.

Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is the Director of the Quality of Life Research Center at the Claremont Graduate School (CGU). His research interests include creativity and innovation, flow and motivation, leadership, work satisfaction, happiness, ethics in business and professions and school-to-work transitions. Dr. Csikszentmihalyi came to the Drucker School at CGU after spending over twenty years at the University of Chicago where he was a Professor of Human Development. He co-founded the "Positive Psychology" movement in The American Psychological Association.

Professor Csikszentmihalyi has written numerous articles and his books include the best-selling Flow, Being Adolescent, The Evolving Self, and Creativity. He is a member of the American Academy of Education, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Leisure Sciences.