Search

Over the past twenty years, a new research trend has emerged that has shifted the focus from categories of disorders to time and context. This shift has blossomed into an increase in daily life and time-based studies in the psychological and psychiatric literature. However, most studies on stress and anxiety have been carried out in a laboratory setting or rely on retrospective recall. In order to obtain true-to-life descriptions, research has to be carried out in the natural environment and should involve situations and activities from daily life. Clinical assessment should focus on the extent to which situations and social processes co-determine the appearance of stress and anxiety. ESM has been applied in case studies to evaluate treatment outcome and to explore the relationship between experiences of anxiety and the situational context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]