Editorial: The Experience Sampling Method: A New Lens for Psychological Science in Daily Life

What the paper says

The field of psychological science has long sought to understand mechanisms of human experience and behavior, recognizing that many phenomena—emotions, motivations, social interactions, and cognitive processes—unfold dynamically in real-world contexts. Traditional research methods, relying on retrospective reports or controlled laboratory settings, often struggle to capture this vital within-person variability and ecological complexity. This special issue of Japanese Psychological Research (JPR) addresses this challenge head-on by showcasing innovative research utilizing the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), also known as Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) or Intensive Longitudinal Methods (Bolger & Laurenceau, 2013; Csikszentmihalyi & Larson, 1987; Stone & Shiffman, 1994). ESM offers a powerful methodological lens, allowing researchers to collect data in the natural environment and close to the time of experience, thus minimizing memory bias and increasing ecological validity. The nine papers featured in this special issue represent a significant advancement in both methodology and substantive findings, underscoring the growing maturity and diverse applications of ESM research within the Japanese psychological community. These articles exemplify the breadth and methodological sophistication of contemporary ESM research, covering diverse domains from academic motivation and personality structure to clinical well-being and interpersonal dynamics. Fukushima (2026) investigated whether lower psychological health status contributes to self-concept instability, reversing the typical direction of inquiry. Using data from three experience sampling studies, the research employed a mixed-effects location-scale model to analyze within-person variance in self-concept ratings. This advanced modeling approach accounts for the relationship between the mean and variance of self-concept, providing an unbiased estimate of instability. Findings across the studies suggested that poorer psychological health, as measured by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), was significantly associated with greater self-concept variability, even when controlling for relational context, self-esteem, and social feedback. This work highlights the utility of ESM and sophisticated multilevel modeling in capturing the dynamic nature of self-concept. Xie et al. (2026) applied the cutting-edge Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling (DSEM) technique to ESM data collected from 54 cohabiting heterosexual couples to investigate emotional interdependence in daily life. Their sophisticated analysis revealed that one partner's previous emotions dynamically predict the other's present emotional state. Critically, the study demonstrated that adult attachment orientations (anxiety and avoidance) moderate this process. Specifically, women's attachment avoidance was negatively associated with emotional interdependence, highlighting how stable relational factors interact with momentary emotional dynamics to shape relationship quality. Machida et al. (2026) focused on a clinical phenomenon, examining how objective and subjective attentional control influences the negative impact of cognitive attentional syndrome (CAS) on well-being among high worriers. Specifically, this study comprehensively examines dynamic interactions in daily life from both perspectives: beliefs about attention control (subjective control) and task performance (objective control). Their findings offer novel insights for metacognitive therapy by demonstrating the differential roles of objective attentional ability and subjective control beliefs in moderating the negative effects of worry and threat monitoring on momentary psychological well-being among high worriers. Furukawa (2026) conducted a preregistered ESM replication of the dynamic relationship between self-conscious emotions (guilt/pride) and subsequent self-control, applying the methodology in a Japanese cultural context. Utilizing multilevel path analyses on nearly 10,000 momentary responses, the study revealed that previous guilt felt over a self-control failure had a significant indirect impact on the inhibition of subsequent desire. The research also explored the moderating role of cultural self-construals (independent vs. interdependent), providing essential insights into how core self-regulatory mechanisms operate in different cultural milieus and demonstrating the robustness and cultural sensitivity of the ESM approach for studying motivational processes. Yoshino and Tomida (2026) explored the daily regulation of positive emotions and its connection to depression severity using ESM. The study tested the instrumental model of emotion regulation by examining the prospective relationship between momentary emotional preference for positive emotions and the subsequent use of regulation strategies. They found that a stronger momentary preference for positive emotions predicted the greater use of emotion-focused positive rumination. Crucially, the study identified specific positive emotion dysregulation patterns linked to elevated depression severity: higher depression correlated with the underuse of emotion-focused rumination and the overuse of dampening in daily life, providing ecologically valid, dynamic insights into the regulation deficits associated with depressive symptoms. Nakahara (2026) utilized a 1-week diary survey via ESM to explore the relationship between the level and instability of self-esteem and help-seeking behavior within a specific, understudied population: Japanese older adults. Although the main hypothesis relating self-esteem instability to help-seeking was not statistically supported after meticulous outlier analysis, the study successfully captured fine-grained data on self-esteem dynamics and social behavior in older age. The research provides a valuable foundation for future ESM work in geropsychology, emphasizing the need for carefully adapted methodologies and discussing the unique characteristics of affective stability and social emotional regulation in this demographic. Shimotsukasa and Mieda (2026) challenged the traditional nomothetic structure of personality by employing a sophisticated idiographic approach. Using up to 90 days of daily ESM data from individuals, they applied factor analysis and graphical vector autoregression (GVAR) models to Big Five indicators on a case-by-case basis. Their results revealed profound heterogeneity in both the factor structures and the network dynamics of personality across participants. This compelling evidence challenges the ergodicity assumption (that findings across people generalize to within-person processes) and strongly advocates for the widespread adoption of individualized ESM and network modeling to fully capture the complexity of personality. Hattori et al. (2026) investigated the often-assumed connection between individuals' implicit theories regarding the controllability of mind wandering (MW) and their actual daily MW frequency and emotional intensity. Using a smartphone-based ESM design with real-time sampling, the authors found no significant correlation between the implicit theory scores and the momentarily assessed frequency of MW episodes in daily life. However, implicit theories were significantly correlated with the intensity of emotions experienced following MW episodes. This discrepancy between trait-level beliefs and momentary experience underscores a crucial strength of ESM: its ability to challenge and refine theories based on ecologically valid, real-time data collection. Akamatsu (2026) examined lesson-to-lesson fluctuations in English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) academic self-concept (ASC) among Japanese undergraduates using an intensive longitudinal design. The study demonstrated the highly situational and social nature of ASC, finding that the effect of perceived peer achievement varied drastically between course types: It decreased ASC in a collaborative “English Communication” course (reflecting the big-fish-little-pond effect) but increased it in a “General English” course (reflecting the basking-in-reflected-glory effect). These findings highlight the critical role of specific classroom context in shaping dynamic motivational beliefs, showcasing the utility of intensive longitudinal data to capture motivational shifts in educational settings. The diverse and rigorous studies presented in this special issue powerfully illustrate the ESM's capacity to revolutionize psychological research. By shifting the focus from static, retrospective constructs to dynamic, momentary processes, ESM provides a critical bridge between laboratory findings and real-world behavior (Fahrenberg et al., 2007; Shiffman et al., 2008). The ability to capture individual differences in variability, dynamics, and interdependence opens up new avenues for personalized interventions and theory development across clinical, social, educational, and personality psychology. We anticipate that methodological advances, such as the incorporation of physiological sensors, passive sensing (e.g., using smartphone GPS data), and more sophisticated longitudinal modeling techniques like DSEM and network analysis (Hamaker, 2012; Hektner et al., 2007), will continue to expand the scope and impact of ESM. This special issue, which serves as a testament to the thriving ESM research in Japan, stands as a strong foundation for the future of ESM. We are confident that the ESM will increasingly become the standard for addressing core questions about the human psychological condition as it is truly lived. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all authors for their compelling contributions, and especially to the many reviewers who dedicated their time and expertise to ensure the quality and rigor of this special issue. We also thank the editorial committee members and staff of JPR for their invaluable support throughout this process. The authors declare no conflict of interest associated with this manuscript.