Current Methodological Approaches for Studying the Association Between Love and Psychological Well-Being in Daily Life

We review the literature linking the experience of love in daily life to psychological well-being, with a particular emphasis on the methodologies used to investigate this relationship. Experience sampling methodology has emerged as a key ecologically valid approach that captures real-time experiences within individuals’ natural environments. Experience sampling yields rich intensive longitudinal data, which, when analyzed using dynamic models, offers promising avenues for exploring love as a momentary, fluctuating emotional experience and its connection to well-being. We provide a concise demonstration of how to analyze daily-life data on love and well-being with such dynamical models, with tutorial files made available online on the Open Science Framework.