Assessing Emotions in Everyday Life

What is this study about?

This project investigates people’s emotional experiences in daily life, how these emotional experiences change in response to everyday events and social interactions, and how people manage their everyday emotional experiences.  

Your participation will help us extend research on emotions in daily life and promote everyday wellbeing. This project is also part of eight students’ Honours theses for 2021. So, in addition to helping science, you’ll be assisting us in getting our degrees!

What will I need to do to take part in this study?

The study involves two parts:

  • Part 1 of the study (Day 1) will take about 45 minutes. You’ll download a smartphone application called SEMA3 and complete a baseline survey
  • In Part 2 of the study (Days 2 - 8), the SEMA3 app will prompt you to complete several short surveys per day over the following 7 days. Each SEMA3 smartphone  survey will only take around 2-3 minutes to complete.

Who is eligible to participate?

There are 4 eligibility requirements for the study:

  1. You must 18 years or older.
  2. You must be in an AEST time-zone (which covers the Australian east coast) for the duration of the study
  3. You must own an iPhone (iOS 8 or above) or an Android (Android 6.0 or above), NOT an Oppo, Huawei or RealMe phone
  4. You must be willing to install the SEMA3 application onto your smartphone - SEMA3 is free to download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, and does not collect any personally identifying information
  5. The study takes 8 days in total to complete. You must be available for this entire period, as payment will be contingent on completing the daily smartphone surveys.

What will I receive for my participation?

To compensate you for your time, you’ll receive up to $65 in GiftPay vouchers, which can be used in over 100 Australian stores (e.g., Coles, Woolworths, Myer, David Jones, etc.). See giftpay.com.au for more information. These gift cards are only valid for use in Australia.  

You’ll receive a $15 GiftPay voucher for completing the baseline survey on Day 1. Please note that we will not provide payment to participants who (a) are not in AEST, (b) complete the survey too quickly, or (c) fail too many of the attention checks embedded in the survey.

You’ll receive up to $50 in GiftPay vouchers for completing the daily smartphone surveys over the following week, depending on how many smartphone surveys you complete.

  • If you complete 81% or more of the smartphone surveys, you’ll receive the full $50
  • If you complete fewer surveys, you will receive a proportion of the payment. For example, if you complete 61-80% of surveys, you'll receive $40. If you complete zero, or only one or two smartphone surveys, you’ll receive $0.

At the end of the study you’ll receive a personalized report which shows you how your feelings changed over the week. This gives you a picture of your emotional profile during the week and will help you better understand your own emotional experiences.

What do I do if I'm interested in participating?

If you are interested in participating in the study, please fill out the following screening survey: http://go.unimelb.edu.au/47ti

You’ll be asked to provide your email address, answer 4 short screening questions, and then select a date you would like to begin the study. We'll get you set up from there.

Contact

If you have any questions about this study, please feel free to email us at seelstudy2021@gmail.com

The research team for this study is Dr Katie Greenaway, Dr Peter Koval, Dr Elise Kalokerinos, Dr Ella Moeck and honours students: Jack Woods, Kristina Mei, Joanne Kostopoulos, Yehudi Saling, Lachlan Bagnara, Komal Grewal, Rachel Freeman-Robinson, and Sarah O’Brien.