Avdi Evrinomy, Paraskevopoulos Evangelos, Lagogianni Christina, Kartsidis Panagiotis, Plaskasovitis Fotis
Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece.
Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, Nicosia 1678, Cyprus.
Entropy (Basel). 2022 Apr 6;24(4):517. doi: 10.3390/e24040517.
In line with the growing recognition of the role of embodiment, affect and implicit processes in psychotherapy, several recent studies examine the role of physiological synchrony in the process and outcome of psychotherapy. This study aims to introduce Partial Directed Coherence (PDC) as a novel approach to calculating psychophysiological synchrony and examine its potential to contribute to our understanding of the therapy process. The study adopts a single-case, mixed-method design and examines physiological synchrony in one-couple therapy in relation to the therapeutic alliance and a narrative analysis of meaning construction in the sessions. Interpersonal Physiological Synchrony (IPS) was calculated, via a windowed approach, through PDC of a Heart Rate Variability-derived physiological index, which was measured in the third and penultimate sessions. Our mixed-method analysis shows that PDC quantified significant moments of IPS within and across the sessions, modeling the characteristics of interpersonal interaction as well as the effects of therapy on the interactional dynamics. The findings of this study point to the complex interplay between explicit and implicit levels of interaction and the potential contribution of including physiological synchrony in the study of interactional processes in psychotherapy.
随着人们越来越认识到体现、情感和内隐过程在心理治疗中的作用，最近的几项研究探讨了生理同步性在心理治疗过程和结果中的作用。本研究旨在引入偏定向相干性（PDC）作为一种计算心理生理同步性的新方法，并检验其对我们理解治疗过程的潜在贡献。该研究采用单病例混合方法设计，考察一对夫妻治疗中的生理同步性与治疗联盟的关系，以及对治疗过程中意义建构的叙事分析。人际生理同步性（IPS）通过窗口化方法，根据心率变异性衍生的生理指标的偏定向相干性来计算，该指标在第三次和倒数第二次治疗中进行测量。我们的混合方法分析表明，偏定向相干性量化了各治疗过程中和不同治疗过程间人际生理同步性的显著时刻，模拟了人际互动的特征以及治疗对互动动态的影响。本研究结果表明，显性和隐性互动水平之间存在复杂的相互作用，以及在心理治疗互动过程研究中纳入生理同步性的潜在贡献。
