Ecological sampling methods for studying everyday situations

This chapter reviews existing and emerging methodologies for the ambulatory assessment of real-world situations. It distinguishes between first-person/subjective and third-person/objective approaches and provides research examples for each reviewed ecological assessment method. The chapter opens with a discussion of why it is important to assess situations directly in daily life. The following two main sections review approaches for (a) the first-person assessment of real-world situation experiences and perceptions, such as experience sampling and daily diary approaches, and (b) the third-person assessment of objective real-world situation cues, such as naturalistic observation and mobile sensing. Finally, the chapter provides a methodological discussion of the cue-perception interplay and highlights potential future directions in the study of everyday situations.