3 - (SYM 56) Deriving Clinical Inferences from Binary Momentary Data

Traditionally, clinical psychology has used continuous data and correlational methods to draw inferences. Of course, these methods have yielded decades of insights into the form and function of psychopathology. However, these models struggle to inform researchers about when particular events are occurring, where the notion of ‘when’ refers not only to specific timing (which is, of course, paramount) but also the specific conditions. Momentary dichotomous data, however, can do both of these things—reflecting when a construct of interest is present or absent, while also facilitating the assessment of which other constructs and processes were also present 

Invoking the notion of discrete data, especially for ostensibly continuous constructs, inevitably provokes a negative response from researchers. In the present talk I will describe how this need not be the case and how, in fact, these data types can be useful, especially in clinical contexts.


The present study trained 54 community participants to report on the presence of several emotions (e.g., sadness, anxiety, anger, agitation, fear, embarrassment, frustration, irritability), as well as (a) whether they felt compelled to act on the emotion, (b) whether they felt motivated to regulate or change the emotion, (c) whether they attempted to regulate the emotion, and (d) whether they were successful in regulating the emotion. In addition, participants reported the intensity of the emotion, the unpleasantness of the emotion, and the degree of urgency they felt to respond to the emotion. Data were collected eight times per day for 30 days. The maximum number of observations was 233 (mean = 176.77, SD = 53.18). Ising models—network models for dichotomous variables—were used to identify and describe the logical chains of events that led from context to emotion elicitation to emotion response to emotion regulation. Exemplar participants will be used to demonstrate how these logical chains operate like relays—if-then rules that dictate the sequence of context, emotion, and behavior from one moment to the next.