Assessment in daily life. A Review of Computer-assisted Methodologies and Applications in Psychology and Psychophysiology, years 2000-2005

The extent to which ambulatory assessment methodology has developed is evident in the growing number of journal articles and in two edited volumes comprising contributions by numerous international authors from European countries and the US (Fahrenberg & Myrtek, 1996, 2001a). The present review will focus on recent publications from the years 2000 to 2005, without providing a complete account of publications over this period. The first Section deals with Assessment Strategies and Issues in Methodology such as reliability, acceptance of monitoring methods, reactivity aspects, and ethical issues. Subsequently, recent research and applications, and new methods are reviewed under two headings: Psychological Assessment and Physiological Monitoring and Psychophysiology. According to the number of references, the chief areas of interest were emotion and stress, pain and symptom reports, blood pressure research, and the recording of physical activity and movement patterns. The advances in Computer-assisted Self-Monitoring and Self-Management are addressed in another Section. Finally, the impact of the innovative methodology and some perspectives are discussed.