Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Social Neuroscience, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Social Neuroscience, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Horm Behav. 2018 Feb;98:183-190. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2017.12.018. Epub 2018 Feb 9.
In laboratory environments individuals may display empathic cortisol stress responses merely from observing another experience psychosocial stress. Moreover, within couples, women synchronize their own to their partners' stress-induced cortisol release. We investigated whether a woman's tendency to experience such cortisol stress resonance in a controlled laboratory task is associated with the degree to which her and her partner's diurnal cortisol levels covary in a naturalistic environment. Such habitual cortisol covariation may be a pathway via which close relationships influence health outcomes. Forty-four men completed the Trier Social Stress Test while their female partners observed the situation, either via "real-life" (one-way mirror) or "virtual" (video) observation modality. Later, the couples collected diurnal cortisol samples over two weekdays. Hierarchical linear modeling indicated that the degree to which couples covaried in their daily cortisol secretion was associated with the female partner's cortisol stress resonance in the laboratory, and that this association was stronger if stress resonance was assessed in the "real-life" observation condition. Specifically, women with higher cortisol stress resonance were more closely linked to their partner's diurnal cortisol secretion. Neither momentary partner presence during sampling nor relationship duration or quality accounted for the association. By showing that covariation in the laboratory has ecological validity in naturalistic conditions, these results make an important methodological contribution to the study of dyadic processes. Given that close relationships exert immense influence over individual health outcomes, understanding the association between acute and chronic physiological linkage may provide important insight into the mechanisms by which close relationships impact well-being.
在实验室环境中，个体仅仅通过观察另一个人经历心理社会压力，就可能表现出同理心的皮质醇应激反应。此外，在夫妻之间，女性会使自己的皮质醇与伴侣因压力而释放的皮质醇同步。我们调查了女性在受控实验室任务中是否倾向于经历这种皮质醇应激共鸣，与她和她的伴侣在自然环境中皮质醇昼夜节律变化的程度是否相关。这种习惯性的皮质醇协同变化可能是亲密关系影响健康结果的途径之一。44 名男性完成了特里尔社会应激测试，而他们的女性伴侣通过“现实生活”（单向镜）或“虚拟”（视频）观察模式观察了这种情况。之后，夫妇们在两个工作日内采集了日间皮质醇样本。分层线性模型表明，夫妻双方在日常皮质醇分泌方面的协同程度与女性在实验室中的皮质醇应激共鸣有关，如果应激共鸣是在“现实生活”观察条件下评估的，则这种关联更强。具体来说，皮质醇应激共鸣较高的女性与伴侣的日间皮质醇分泌更为密切相关。在采样过程中伴侣的即时存在以及关系的持续时间或质量都与这种关联无关。通过证明实验室中的协同具有自然条件下的生态有效性，这些结果为对二元过程的研究做出了重要的方法学贡献。鉴于亲密关系对个人健康结果有巨大影响，了解急性和慢性生理联系之间的关联可能为理解亲密关系如何影响幸福感的机制提供重要的见解。
