• Wilhelm Peter

Many diagnostic procedures in psychology, like clinical interviews or personality questionnaires, rely on retrospective self-reports. Such retrospective self-reports are often compromised by memory errors and are hardly suitable for capturing short-term changes in behaviors and experiences over time or across different situations.

Ambulatory Assessment refers to diagnostic procedures that record individuals’ behaviors and experiences in their natural environment either immediately or with minimal time delay. These methods help to avoid memory errors and provide detailed information about behaviors and experiences, as well as their antecedents and consequences, in individuals’ natural environments.

Evaluation

1.    Regular presence and active participation in the seminar.

2.    Planning a seminar session and giving a presentation on a specific topic. The Power-Point slides and the presentation will be graded.

The seminar provides an overview of various Ambulatory Assessment methods, like systematic self-observation and diary methods, methods of behavioral monitoring (recording of physical activity), psychophysiological monitoring (e.g. heart rate and heart rate variability), and the recording of environmental characteristics (e.g. current location).

Students will gain deeper expertise with a specific method, by reading literature and preparing a presentation.

In accompanying practical exercises, students have the possibility to get own experience with Ambulatory Assessment methods.

1.    Regular presence and active participation in the seminar.

2.    Planning a seminar session and giving a presentation on a specific topic. The Power-Point slides and the presentation will be graded.

Basisliteratur

Mehl, M. R., & Conner, T. S. (Eds.). (2012). Handbook of research methods for studying daily life. New York, NY: Guilford.

Trull, T. J., & Ebner-Priemer, U. W. (2013). Ambulatory Assessment. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 9, 151-176. doi: 10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050212-185510.