Exploring the role of emotions and conversation content in interpersonal synchrony: A case study of a couple therapy session.

OBJECTIVE: This exploratory study investigated the association between interpersonal movement and physiological synchronies, emotional processing, and the conversational structure of a couple therapy session using a multimodal, mixed-method approach. METHOD: The video recordings of a couple therapy session, in which the participants' electrodermal activity was recorded, were analyzed. The session was divided into topical episodes, a qualitative analysis was conducted on each topical episode's emotional aspects, conversational structure and content. In addition, movement and physiological synchrony were calculated in each topical episode. Regression models were used to discover the associations between qualitative variables and synchronies. RESULTS: Physiological synchrony was associated with the emotional aspects of the session and to episodes in which the spouses' relationship was addressed, while movement synchrony was only related to emotional valence. No association between synchrony and conversational structure was found. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that physiological and movement synchrony play distinct roles in psychotherapy. The exploratory study sheds light on the association between momentary synchrony, emotions, and conversational structure in a couple therapy session.

Electrodermal and respiratory synchrony in couple therapy in distinct therapeutic subsystems and reflection periods.

Objective Synchrony in the multi-person context of systemic therapy is a complex and understudied phenomenon. We analyzed respiratory and electrodermal synchronies within a couple therapy system with two therapists to determine whether dyadic subsystems between each client and therapist synchronized differently. We also studied synchrony in reflection periods, in which the therapists discussed the therapy process with clients listening. Finally, we examined the association of synchronies with alliance and outcome.Method: A sample of 22 therapy sessions in which electrodermal activity (EDA) and respiration were recorded were analyzed. Self-report measures of session alliance and outcome were obtained. Synchrony computation was based on windowed cross-correlation using surrogate synchrony and segment-wise shuffling of physiological time series.Results: The results supported the presence of EDA synchrony for the client-therapist and therapist-therapist dyads but not client-client dyads across entire sessions. No significant synchronies were found for respiration behavior. A similar picture was found in reflection periods. Clients' well-being as well as therapists' alliance ratings were significant predictors of client-client EDA synchrony.Conclusion: Our results point to the relational meaning of synchrony and its importance for understanding couple psychotherapy, particularly the reflection periods. Challenges involved in extending synchrony computation to multi-person settings were highlighted.

Psychometric properties of the 10-item Connor-Davidson resilience scale among Finnish older adults.

OBJECTIVES: Resilience, the ability to bounce back after adverse events may be an important factor in active aging. The 10-item version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC10) seems suitable for aging research owing to its low participant burden; however, its psychometric properties have not been comprehensively reported for older people. For example, no estimate exists of the test-retest reliability of the scale when used with older adults. Hence, this study evaluated the psychometric properties of the CD-RISC10 in a large population-based sample of community-dwelling older people. METHOD: The scale's internal consistency, factor structure, construct validity, test-retest reliability, and user experience were analyzed among 1018 Finnish older adults (57% women) aged 75 (45%), 80 (33%) and 85 years (22%). RESULTS: The internal consistency of the CD-RISC10 was good (Cronbach's α = 0.85), test-retest reliability moderate (ICC = 0.61), and the scale was unidimensional. However, a two-factor solution was found among the 75-year-olds, where the ability to deal positively with change (e.g. using humor) explained an additional part of resilience. While no differences by gender, age, or education were observed in total scores, very good perceived financial situation was associated with higher resilience. The scale showed good construct validity, and user feedback indicated that administering the scale in research is quick and easy. CONCLUSION: In general, the CD-RISC10 is a valid method to study older adults' psychological resilience. However, the present test-retest reliability values suggest caution in using the scale as an outcome measure in intervention studies.

The Scales of Psychological Well-Being - a validation, usability and test-retest study among community-dwelling older people in Finland.

Objectives: To validate the Finnish version of the 42-item Scales of Psychological Well-Being among community-dwelling older people. The study also examined the test-retest reliability and usability, i.e. user experience, of the scales in this age group.Method: The 42-item version of the SPWB was administered as part of a face-to-face interview among 968 men and women aged 75, 80 or 85 years. The subsample for test-retest analyses comprised 42 participants, who in addition to 11 interviewers also answered questions concerning the usability of the scales. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, Cronbach's alpha coefficients, Pearson and intra-class correlation coefficients, and Kendal's Tau B were used in the analyses.Results: The factor analyses did not support the theory-based six-factor structure of the scales. The Cronbach's alphas showed high internal consistency reliability for the total scale, but modest for the subscales. The intercorrelations between the subscales were moderate. The total score and the subscale scores of the SPWB correlated positively with quality of life and life satisfaction, and negatively with depressive symptoms. The interviewers reported that while most of the participants responded to the scales without marked difficulties, others could only answer after clarifications of some statements.Discussion: The reliability of the 42-item version of the SPWB was modest. The factor structure was inconsistent among the three age groups studied, but the scales were feasible to use. The current results call for further methodological consideration to optimize assessment of eudaimonic well-being in old age.

Association of tenacious goal pursuit and flexible goal adjustment with out-of-home mobility among community-dwelling older people.

BACKGROUND: As people age, functional losses may limit the potential to get outside the home and participate in desired activities and community life. Coping with age-related losses has been reported to be important for psychological well-being. Hitherto is not known whether active use of coping strategies also helps maintain out-of-home mobility. AIMS: We investigated how two coping strategies, tenacious goal pursuit (TGP; persistency in reaching one's goals) and flexible goal adjustment (FGA; adjusting one's goals to changed circumstances), are associated with life-space mobility and perceived autonomy in participation outdoors among community-dwelling older people. METHODS: Participants (n = 186) were aged 79-93 years. TGP and FGA were self-reported using separate scales. Perceived autonomy in participation was assessed with the Impact on Participation and Autonomy Outdoors-subscale, and life-space mobility with the Life-Space Assessment. Two-step cluster analysis was used to create data-driven coping profiles of TGP and FGA. RESULTS: General linear model analyses showed that the profile including highly tenacious and flexible older people had the highest life-space mobility and perceived autonomy outdoors, whereas the profile including people with low TGP and low FGA showed the lowest scores. Depressive symptoms attenuated the associations. CONCLUSIONS: Active use of both TGP and FGA is favorable for out-of-home mobility and enables more active participation in society in later life.

Associations Between Sympathetic Nervous System Synchrony, Movement Synchrony, and Speech in Couple Therapy.

Background: Research on interpersonal synchrony has mostly focused on a single modality, and hence little is known about the connections between different types of social attunement. In this study, the relationship between sympathetic nervous system synchrony, movement synchrony, and the amount of speech were studied in couple therapy. Methods: Data comprised 12 couple therapy cases (24 clients and 10 therapists working in pairs as co-therapists). Synchrony in electrodermal activity, head and body movement, and the amount of speech and simultaneous speech during the sessions were analyzed in 12 sessions at the start of couple therapy (all 72 dyads) and eight sessions at the end of therapy (48 dyads). Synchrony was calculated from cross-correlations using time lags and compared to segment-shuffled pseudo synchrony. The associations between the synchrony modalities and speech were analyzed using complex modeling (Mplus). Findings: Couple therapy participants' synchrony mostly occurred in-phase (positive synchrony). Anti-phase (negative) synchrony was more common in movement than in sympathetic nervous system activity. Synchrony in sympathetic nervous system activity only correlated with movement synchrony between the client-therapist dyads (r = 0.66 body synchrony, r = 0.59 head synchrony). Movement synchrony and the amount of speech correlated negatively between spouses (r = -0.62 body synchrony, r = -0.47 head synchrony) and co-therapists (r = -0.39 body synchrony, r = -0.28 head synchrony), meaning that the more time the dyad members talked during the session, the less bodily synchrony they exhibited. Conclusion: The different roles and relationships in couple therapy were associated with the extent to which synchrony modalities were linked with each other. In the relationship between clients and therapists, synchrony in arousal levels and movement "walked hand in hand", whereas in the other relationships (spouse or colleague) they were not linked. Generally, more talk time by the therapy participants was associated with anti-phase movement synchrony. If, as suggested, emotions prepare us for motor action, an important finding of this study is that sympathetic nervous system activity can also synchronize with that of others independently of motor action.

Psychological resilience and active aging among older people with mobility limitations.

Active aging refers to striving for well-being through preferred activity and may be restricted with declining mobility. We investigated whether psychological resilience, i.e., the ability to tolerate hardship, can aid older people in being active despite mobility limitations. Participants were 961 community-dwelling persons aged 75, 80, or 85 years living in Jyväskylä, Central Finland. Mobility limitations were indicated as self-reported difficulty in walking 2 km. Categories were no difficulty (reference), difficulty, and unable to walk. Resilience was assessed with the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale and active aging with the University of Jyvaskyla Active Aging scale. Data were analyzed with OLS regression analyses, which were stratified by age. In all age-groups, having difficulties walking or being unable to walk 2 km was associated with lower active aging scores. Resilience moderated this association especially among the 75-year-olds, but not among the 85-year-olds: The higher the resilience score, the higher the active aging score among those reporting no or some walking difficulties. Those unable to walk 2 km had lower active aging scores irrespective of resilience level. Psychological resilience may alleviate the negative effects of early phase walking difficulties on active aging but may be insufficient to compensate for more severe walking limitations that restrict not only function but also autonomy.

Nonverbal Synchrony in Couple Therapy Linked to Clients' Well-Being and the Therapeutic Alliance.

Nonverbal synchrony between individuals has a robust relation to the positive aspects of relationships. In psychotherapy, where talking is the cure, nonverbal synchrony has been related to a positive outcome of therapy and to a stronger therapeutic alliance between therapist and client in dyadic settings. Only a few studies have focused on nonverbal synchrony in multi-actor therapy conversations. Here, we studied the synchrony of head and body movements in couple therapy, with four participants present (spouses and two therapists). We analyzed more than 2000min of couple therapy videos from 11 couple therapy cases using Motion Energy Analysis and a Surrogate Synchrony (SUSY), a procedure used earlier in dyadic psychotherapy settings. SUSY was calculated for all six dyads per session, leading to synchrony computations for 66 different dyads. Significant synchrony occurred in all 29 analyzed sessions and between the majority of dyads. Complex models were used to determine the relations between nonverbal synchrony and the clients' well-being and all participants' evaluations of the therapeutic alliance. The clients' well-being was related to body synchronies in the sessions. Differences were found between the clients' and therapists' alliance evaluations: the clients' alliance evaluations were related to synchrony between both dyads of opposite gender, whereas the therapists' alliance evaluations were related to synchrony between dyads of the same gender, but opposite to themselves. With four participants present, our study introduces a new aspect of nonverbal synchrony, since as a dyad synchronizes, the other two participants are observing it. Nonverbal synchrony seems to be as important in couple therapy as in individual psychotherapy, but the presence of multiple participants makes the patterns more complex.

Assimilative and Accommodative Coping and Older People's Leisure Activities.

Objectives: Assimilative and accommodative coping strategies have hardly been studied in relation to leisure activities in old age. We investigated whether tenacious goal pursuit (TGP) and flexible goal adjustment (FGA) influence the association between physical performance and participation in leisure activities. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted among 187 community-dwelling people aged 79 to 93 years. TGP, FGA, and leisure activity participation were asked with questionnaires. Physical performance was assessed with the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB). Results: TGP moderated the relationship between physical performance and leisure activity participation. Despite low physical performance, people with high TGP had close to mean level of leisure activity participation, whereas low TGP was associated with very little activity. Most notably, people without high TGP had fewer outdoor activities and group activities outside home. Similar effects were not found for FGA. Discussion: Persistency, rather than flexibility, in goal pursuit appears to help older people be active in their leisure time.

Sympathetic nervous system synchrony: An exploratory study of its relationship with the therapeutic alliance and outcome in couple therapy.

In previous research, we found that sympathetic nervous system synchrony, measured via electrodermal activity (EDA), occurs between participants at the start of couple therapy. The aim now was to test whether this synchrony changes during the therapy process, and how any changes may be related to clients' and therapists' evaluations of the working alliance, and the outcome of therapy. Twelve different couple therapy processes were analyzed (24 clients, plus 10 therapists, working in pairs; hence, 4 persons per session) using EDA concordance indices and questionnaires (Outcome Rating Scale, Session Rating Scale, and Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure). EDA synchrony between the couples increased from the beginning to the end of therapy. This seemed to be connected to a positive linear trend in female clients' well-being during the therapy process. There were no statistically significant changes in the EDA synchrony between the cotherapists, or between the clients and the therapists. We found specific changes in the EDA synchrony to be related to changes in the therapeutic alliance, and/or changes in the clients' well-being. Heightened EDA synchrony was frequently related to a better outcome; nevertheless, there was one instance in which decreasing synchrony seemed to be more beneficial. It appears that couple therapy can bring spouses closer together also on a physiological level, which could be especially important for the well-being of women. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).