scholarly journals By Choice or By Chance? Intentional Reverie is Real but Rare

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Corwin Westgate
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Experience Sampling ◽  
Well Being ◽  
External World ◽  
Mental Activity ◽  
External Stimulation

Up to half our lives consists of private internally-focused thought, yet little research has focused on the content and consequences of such thought. The ability to occupy oneself solely by thinking could even reduce stress and increase well-being. However, lab studies suggest that many people do not enjoy intentional thinking and may prefer even negative external stimulation to being alone with their thoughts. Do people deliberately entertain themselves with their thoughts in everyday life and if so, do they enjoy it? Or do people prefer it when such thoughts occur spontaneously? In an experience sampling study, 170 undergraduates responded to texts four times a day for one week, reporting on their thoughts. Overall, people were focused almost equally on the external world around them (48.8% of the time) and on their own inner thoughts (49.3%). On average people chose to entertain themselves with their thoughts approximately 18.48% of the time and reported positive moods while doing so. However, people were in even better moods when desired thoughts occurred spontaneously rather than intentionally. Although people do intentionally engage in enjoyable thinking in everyday life, such thought may make up only a minority of conscious mental activity, and be less enjoyable than spontaneous desired thoughts.

scholarly journals The relationship between online vigilance and affective well-being in everyday life: Combining smartphone logging with experience sampling

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niklas Johannes ◽  
Adrian Meier ◽  
Leonard Reinecke ◽  
Saara Ehlert ◽  
Dinda Nuranissa Setiawan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Experience Sampling ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Relationship

scholarly journals Comparing the phenomenological qualities of stimulus-independent thought, stimulus-dependent thought and dreams using experience sampling

2020 ◽  
Vol 376 (1817) ◽  
pp. 20190694 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. Gross ◽  
A. P. Smith ◽  
Y. M. Graveline ◽  
R. E. Beaty ◽  
J. W. Schooler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
External Environment ◽  
Experience Sampling ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Sampling Procedure ◽  
Mental Activity ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Measured Variable ◽  
External Stimulation ◽  
Considerable Portion ◽  
Independent Thought

Humans spend a considerable portion of their lives engaged in ‘stimulus-independent thoughts' (SIT), or mental activity that occurs independently of input from the immediate external environment. Although such SITs are, by definition, different from thoughts that are driven by stimuli in one's external environment (i.e. stimulus-dependent thoughts; SDTs), at times, the phenomenology of these two types of thought appears to be deceptively similar. But how similar are they? We address this question by comparing the content of two types of SIT (dreaming and waking SITs) with the content of SDTs. In this 7 day, smartphone-based experience-sampling procedure, participants were intermittently probed during the day and night to indicate whether their current thoughts were stimulus dependent or stimulus independent. They then responded to content-based items indexing the qualitative aspects of their experience (e.g. My thoughts were jumping from topic to topic). Results indicate substantial distinctiveness between these three types of thought: significant differences between at least two of the three mental states were found across every measured variable. Implications are discussed. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Offline perception: voluntary and spontaneous perceptual experiences without matching external stimulation’.

scholarly journals The Relationship Between Online Vigilance and Affective Well-Being in Everyday Life: Combining Smartphone Logging with Experience Sampling

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niklas Johannes ◽  
Adrian Meier ◽  
Leonard Reinecke ◽  
Saara Ehlert ◽  
Dinda Nuranissa Setiawan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Experience Sampling ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Smartphone Use ◽  
Technology Users ◽  
The Relationship

Through communication technology, users find themselves constantly connected to others to such an extent that they routinely develop a mindset of connectedness. This mindset has been defined as online vigilance. Although there is a large body of research on media use and well-being, the question of how online vigilance impacts well-being remains unanswered. In this preregistered study, we combine experience sampling and smartphone logging to address the relation of online vigilance and affective well-being in everyday life. Seventy-five Android users answered eight daily surveys over five days (N = 1615) whilst having their smartphone use logged. Thinking about smartphone-mediated social interactions (i.e., the salience dimension of online vigilance) was negatively related to affective well-being. However, it was far more important whether those thoughts were positive or negative. No other dimension of online vigilance was robustly related to affective well-being. Taken together, our results suggest that online vigilance does not pose a serious threat to affective well-being in everyday life.

Psychometric Properties of the Spontaneous and Deliberate Mind Wandering Scales

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 878-890 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Marcusson-Clavertz ◽  
Oscar N. E. Kjell
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Psychometric Properties ◽  
Generalized Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Desirability ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Experience Sampling ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mind Wandering ◽  
Generalized Anxiety ◽  
Psychological Variables

Abstract. Thinking about task-unrelated matters (mind wandering) is related to cognition and well-being. However, the relations between mind wandering and other psychological variables may depend on whether the former commence spontaneously or deliberately. The current two studies investigated the psychometric properties of the Spontaneous and Deliberate Mind Wandering Scales (SDMWS; Carriere, Seli, & Smilek, 2013 ). Study 1 evaluated the stability of the scales over 2 weeks ( N = 284 at Time 1), whereas Study 2 ( N = 323) evaluated their relations to Generalized anxiety disorder symptoms, Openness, Social desirability, and experience-sampling reports of intentional and unintentional mind wandering during an online cognitive task. The results indicated that the SDMWS were better fitted with a two-factor than a one-factor solution, although the fit was improved with the exclusion of one item. The scales exhibited strong measurement invariance across gender and time, and moderately high test-retest reliability. Spontaneous mind wandering predicted Generalized anxiety disorder and experience-sampling reports of unintentional mind wandering, whereas Deliberate mind wandering predicted Openness and experience-sampling reports of intentional mind wandering. Furthermore, Spontaneous mind wandering showed a negative association with social desirability of weak-to-medium strength. In sum, the scales generally showed favorable psychometric properties.

Arousal-Cognition links in everyday life: Combining experience sampling and ambulatory bio-monitoring

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Riediger ◽  
Wrzus Cornelia ◽  
Klipker Kathrin ◽  
Muller Viktor ◽  
Florian Schmiedek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Experience Sampling ◽  
Bio Monitoring

scholarly journals The Experience of Empathy in Everyday Life

2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762199520
Author(s):  
Gregory John Depow ◽  
Zoë Francis ◽  
Michael Inzlicht
Keyword(s):  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Negatively Associated ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Trait Empathy

We used experience sampling to examine perceptions of empathy in the everyday lives of a group of 246 U.S. adults who were quota sampled to represent the population on key demographics. Participants reported an average of about nine opportunities to empathize per day; these experiences were positively associated with prosocial behavior, a relationship not found with trait measures. Although much of the literature focuses on the distress of strangers, in everyday life, people mostly empathize with very close others, and they empathize with positive emotions 3 times as frequently as with negative emotions. Although trait empathy was negatively associated only with well-being, empathy in daily life was generally associated with increased well-being. Theoretically distinct components of empathy—emotion sharing, perspective taking, and compassion—typically co-occur in everyday empathy experiences. Finally, empathy in everyday life was higher for women and the religious but not significantly lower for conservatives and the wealthy.

Authentic leadership and leaders' mental well-being: An experience sampling study

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Weiss ◽  
Stefan Razinskas ◽  
Julia Backmann ◽  
Martin Hoegl
Keyword(s):  
Authentic Leadership ◽  
Experience Sampling ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mental Well Being
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