Day Reconstruction Method

Citation: Kahneman, D., Krueger, A. B., Schkade, D. A., Schwarz, N., & Stone, A. A. (2004). A survey method for characterizing daily life experience: The day reconstruction method. Science, 306(5702), 1776-1780.

PMID or DOI: DOI: 10.1126/science.1103572

Main positive psychological well-being construct measured: Positive affect

Sub-constructs measured: N/A

Available subscales: Positive and negative affect

Description: The Day Reconstruction Method (DRM) measures how people spend their time and how they emotionally experience the various activities of life.

Number of items: 12, including 4 positive and 8 negative

Example of statement/item: “Indicate to what extent you felt happy during specific activities of your day”

Response options: 7-point Likert scale ranging from 0, “not at all” to 6, “very much”.

Total score: Items are averaged, yielding a range from 0 to 6 for both dimensions. Higher scores indicate greater levels of positive and negative affect, respectively. Note: Most studies using the DRM have computed the overall positive affect score by weighting the positive emotions reported for each activity by the number of minutes spent in that activity, and then averaged across all the time-weighted activity scores.

Examples of studies:
1. Bhattacharyya, M. R., & Steptoe, A. (2011). Mood and transient cardiac dysfunction in everyday life. J Behav Med, 34(1), 74-81.

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