Interpersonal Psychophysiology and the Study of the Family

1
Interpersonal Psychophysiology and the Study of
the Family

• Wagner, H. L., Calam, R. M. (1988).
  Interpersonal psychophysiology and the study of
  the family. In H. L. Wagner (Ed.), Social
  psychophysiology and emotion Theory and clinical
  applications (pp. 211-229). New York John Wiley
  Sons, Inc.

2
Introduction

• Definition of interpersonal psychophysiology
  simultaneous measurement of physiological arousal
  from two or more persons engaged in social
  interaction.
• At the time of the writing, Wagner and Calam
  (1988) warned that physiological research was
  expensive and time-consuming. The expense has
  decreases in recent years, but the approach is
  time-consuming.

3
Interpersonal Psychophysiology and Emotion

• Results from a series of studies of psychotherapy
  process suggested that there was physiological
  arousal of client and therapist covaried, but the
  covariation was not consistent throughout the
  session.
• Times when covariation was low were associated
  with therapist reported that s/he was
  preoccupied.
• Heart rate covariation seemed to be associated
  during interactions described as meaningful.
• Empathy does not seem to be a state but is
  experienced as a series of discrete events.

4
Interpersonal Psychophysiology and Married Couples

• Gottman (1979) reviewed research on patterns of
  affective exchange.
• Distressed couples show more negative affect,
  more negative reciprocal affect, and more
  affective asymmetry (discrepancy between
  affective experience).
• Gottman hypothesized that physiological
  covariation would affect relationship
  satisfaction.
• Gottmans Research Design
• Chose physiological parameters that reflected
  sympathetic and parasympathetic activity.
• Couples were recorded as they participated in
  high and low-conflict discussions.
• Physiological arousal was also measured as the
  participant watched the videotaped interaction.

5
Interpersonal Psychophysiology and Married
Couples (cont.)

• Gottmans Results
• High conflict discussions were significant
  predictors of relationship satisfaction. Low
  conflict discussions were not significant
  predictors of relationship satisfaction.
• Fifty-nine percent of the variation in
  relationship satisfaction was associated with
  physiological covariation between the couple.
• Physiological measures were significant
  predictors of relationship satisfaction three
  years later.

6
The Family as a System

• Gottmans results seem to support aspects of
  family systems theory (e.g., effect of type of
  conversation on physiological arousal influence
  of covariation physiological arousal between
  partners).
• Methodological need development of protocol for
  measuring more than two family members,
  especially methods to measure children that are
  not influenced by lab setting.