Dominant theoretical accounts of interpersonal synchrony, the temporal coordination of biobehavioral processes between several individuals, have employed a linear approach, generally considering synchrony as a positive state, and utilizing aggregate scores. However, synchrony is known to take on a dynamical form with continuous shifts in its timeline. Acting as one continuously, is not always the optimal state, due to an intrinsic tension between individualistic and synergistic forms of action that exist in many social situations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurosci Biobehav Rev
February 2024
During social interactions, we constantly learn about the thoughts, feelings, and personality traits of our interaction partners. Learning in social interactions is critical for bond formation and acquiring knowledge. Importantly, this type of learning is typically bi-directional, as both partners learn about each other simultaneously.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic has a major impact on mental well-being and interpersonal relationships. Nonetheless, little is known about the complex interactions between one's overall perceived interpersonal closeness and physiological or psychological aspects of interpersonal functioning. This study aimed to understand the interaction between perceived interpersonal closeness during COVID-19 and interpersonal mechanisms in predicting well-being.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite the immense impact of COVID-19 on mental health, there is a lack of prospective studies examining physiological predictors of current risk factors. Moreover, although physiological processes evidently interact with socio-demographic factors to modulate individuals' response to a crisis, it remains largely unknown how these complex interactions shape people's mental responses to COVID-19. To fill these gaps of knowledge, we chose a potent physiological marker of distress - heightened baseline electrodermal activity (EDA) measured before the pandemic began - and hypothesized it would be related to greater COVID-related fears and worries as a function of individuals' household size.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite the unfolding impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological well-being, there is a lack of prospective studies that target physiological markers of distress. There is a need to examine physiological predictors from the pre-pandemic period to identify and treat individuals at-risk. In this study, our aim was to use pre-pandemic markers of autonomic nervous system (ANS) parasympathetic and sympathetic regulation to predict individuals' psychological well-being during the crisis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInterpersonal physiological synchrony is the spontaneous temporal coordination of physiological processes between several individuals. This type of synchrony is critical for human relationships, as it promotes two important outcomes: the quality of the relationships between synchronized individuals, and how well synchronized individuals perform together. Nonetheless a clear estimation of the size of the correlations between interpersonal physiological synchrony and relationship or performance outcomes is missing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInterpersonal synchrony, the temporal coordination of actions, emotions, thoughts and physiological processes, is a widely studied ubiquitous phenomenon. Research has already established that more synchrony is not always more beneficial, especially in the fields of emotional and physiological synchrony. Despite this fact, the dominant tone in the literature is that behavioral interpersonal synchrony is a pro-social phenomenon, and hence, in social contexts, more behavioral synchrony is generally considered better.
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