Psychophysiological Synchrony During Verbal Interaction in Romantic Relationships

Abstract

Previous studies about romantic relationships have shown that the reciprocal influence between partners occurs not only at the behavioral and socio-emotional levels, but also at the psychophysiological level. This reciprocal influence is expressed in a pattern of physiological synchrony between partners (i.e., coordinated dynamics of the physiological time series). The main aim of the present study was to explore the presence of a pattern of physiological synchrony in electrodermal activity (EDA) during a couple interaction task. A second objective was to compare the synchrony levels during a negative interaction condition versus a positive interaction condition. Finally, we analyzed the association between synchrony and self-perception of empathy, dyadic empathy, and relationship satisfaction. Thirty-two couples (64 individuals) participated in this study. Each couple performed a structured interaction task while the EDA of both partners was being registered. The quantification of synchrony was based on the cross-correlation of both members' EDA time-series. In order to control for coincidental synchrony, surrogate datasets were created by repeatedly shuffling the original data of spouses X and Y of a dyad and computing synchronies on the basis of the shuffled data (pseudosynchrony values). Our results confirmed the presence of significant EDA synchrony during the interaction. We also found that synchrony was higher during the negative interactions relative to the positive interactions. Additionally, physiological synchrony during positive interaction was higher for those couples in which males scored higher in dyadic empathy. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Physiological synchrony in psychotherapy sessions

“…Palmieri et al (2018) found higher EDA synchrony in clinical interviews when the interviewer had received a secure-attachment prime. Coutinho et al (2018) supported the significant synchrony findings in a sample of romantic couples, yet not with the concordance index but with the cross-correlational method of surrogate synchrony (concordance and surrogate synchrony are introduced in the methods section below).…”

Strangers, Friends, and Lovers Show Different Physiological Synchrony in Different Emotional States

“…The function of physiological synchrony in positive as opposed to negative emotional states remains uncertain. There is naivete in the assumption that synchrony is only commonly associated with positive emotional states [11,[15][16][17][18] as numerous contradictory findings challenge the generality of this principle [19][20][21][22]. For instance, events that precipitate negative emotional states, such as couple conflict, have been found to synchronize HRV and to elevate inflammatory compounds [19].…”

“…Physiological synchrony during such conflicts have also predicted marital dissatisfaction [20]. Similarly, synchrony of electrodermal activity (EDA), the difference in electrical potential between different areas of the skin, was enhanced during negative rather than positive interactions between romantic partners [21]. Relatedly, among dyadic peers, physiological synchrony has been observed to be heightened during social interactions that involve partners who disliked each other [23].…”

Changes in the Effective Connectivity of the Social Brain When Making Inferences About Close Others vs. the Self

“…Each participant watched a set of video-vignettes of his/her romantic partner expressing emotional contents, and was asked to, while watching, either focus on his/her own experience (self condition) or his/her partner's experience (other condition). These video-vignettes of 20 s duration containing the expression of positive and negative emotional contents were extracted from a previously video-recorded interaction task performed in the lab, where participants shared things that they either liked (positive videos) or disliked (negative videos) about their partner (more details regarding the interaction task can be found in Coutinho et al, 2017Coutinho et al, , 2018).…”