Experience sampling study on social fatigue in daily life
Additional information
Type of assignment: BSc. thesis
Internal/external: Internal
How many students? 1 or 2
Supervision: Individual (or two students if you collect data together)
Includes data collection? Yes
Type of research: Longitudinal, quantitative, survey type
Number of ECTS? 15 ECTS
Research assignment
Social fatigue refers to feeling mentally or emotionally drained from (too many) social interactions. In this study, you will examine experiences of social fatigue in daily life using an experience sampling method (ESM) study. ESM is a fairly new type of research design that uses a smartphone app to repeatedly (e.g., once or multiple times a day) measure self-reported experiences and behaviours over several consecutive days or weeks using very short questionnaires (Myin-Germeys & Kuppens, 2021). Because of the intensive nature of the data collection, ESM studies are often performed in relatively small samples sizes.
Over a two-week period, participants will report multiple times per day on their social interactions, perceived social fatigue, and other constructs or behaviours of interest using an app on their phone. ESM is particularly suitable for this topic because social interactions and fatigue fluctuate across the day and may be difficult to recall accurately afterward. For the current study you will aim to recruit at least 10-20 participants
The aim is to investigate predictors or correlates of social fatigue. For instance, you can focus on if and how the number of or different types of social contact (e.g., in-person vs. online) are associated with within-person fluctuations in social energy and fatigue. You are free to add your own specific momentary constructs or behaviours of interest (e.g., affect, sleep), as long as they can be easily measured using a very small number of questions. You can also add a longer baseline questionnaire focussing on specific baseline trait-like predictors of social fatigue over time, such as personality traits (e.g., introversion) or self-compassion.
Who do we look for?
Student with an interest in the topic and in doing quantitative data preparation, visualisation and analysis.
References
Myin-Germeys, I., & Kuppens, P. (2022). The Open Handbook of Experience Sampling Methodology: A step-by-step guide to designing, conducting, and analyzing ESM studies (2nd ed.). Center for Research on Experience Sampling and Ambulatory Methods Leuven. https://www.kuleuven.be/samenwerking/real/real-book/index.htm