Theoretical, methodological and analytical methods for exploring emotional episodes: Applications to consumption emotions and emotional satisfaction

Research in consumption behavior often assumes emotion to be an antecedent or consequence of consumption rather than an integral part of consumption as it occurs. Psychological approaches to emotion often magnify this issue by using a cognitive model focussed on emotion as an outcome. This paper proposes a conceptualization of emotion as a process and an integral part of the consumption experience, perhaps even the reason for the experience. The focus is not specifically on emotional outcomes and their subsequent impact on behavior but on the process by which we experience emotion in a consumption environment and how that process is affected by emotional antecedents and results in emotional outcomes. Using a process trace method, a means of understanding emotional experiences as they occur is presented. The model is tested using a multilevel analysis method that preserves the time series nature of process measures by modeling at both the individual and group levels.