SPA 2023 - Interpersonal Assessment at Multiple Timescales - Applications and Implications (2 CEs)

Abstract

Intensive repeated assessments of the interpersonal behavior based on the interpersonal circumplex dimensions of dominance (agency) and warmth (communion) can be collected at multiple timescales using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and objective coding via Continuous Assessment of Interpersonal Dynamics (CAID). Timescales range from moment-to-moment behavioral exchanges, to social interactions occurring across days or weeks, to multiple bursts of intensive repeated assessments over months or years. Such assessments identify temporally dynamic patterns of interpersonal perception, interpersonal behavior, and social exchange that have associations with motivation, affect, well-being, symptomology, personality, and psychotherapy. The current symposium presents four studies employing distinct applications of intensive repeated interpersonal assessment at different timescales that have implications for clinical diagnosis, treatment evaluation, and personality functioning. First, Nicole Cain presents the case of a female patient diagnosed with BPD and malignant narcissism who completed 18-months of Transference Focused Psychotherapy. Two-week bursts of EMA were collected at baseline, 9-months into treatment, and termination. Results show shifts in her perceptions of self and other in daily life are linked to significant changes in the transference in session and to reductions in self-directed and other-directed aggression over the course of treatment. Second, Michael Roche presents research on a new measure to comprehensively operationalize the interpersonal situation, the Concomitants of Interpersonal Relationship Communications: Longitudinal Examination (CIRCLE), using two samples (n=180, n=186) where participants completed a multi-day EMA study of social interactions in daily life. The CIRCLE captures elements of the self-system (agentic and communal motives, private emotions, self-mentalization), other system (perception/construal of other’s agentic and communal motives, private emotions, and mentalization capacities), and interpersonal field (self-reported agentic and communal behaviors and displayed emotions, perception of other’s agentic and communal behaviors and displayed emotions). Associations among these dimensions and their correlations with psychopathology are examined at the within- and between-person levels to evaluate validity and provide an example of how to use CIRCLE for interpersonal case conceptualization. Third, Xiaochen Luo presents results based on the assessment of moment-to-moment interpersonal patterns in 103 psychotherapy sessions from 26 therapy dyads using CAID. Group Iterative Multiple Model Estimation identified data-driven subgroups of sessions with shared patterns of interpersonal dynamics and subgroup membership was related to patients’ interpersonal problems, symptom severity, and working alliance at baseline. Fourth, Alexandra Halberstadt presents the results of a 21-day EMA study (N = 227) of social interactions in daily life. Results indicated that communal and agentic complementarity were associated with affect valence and arousal in nuanced ways. For example, while complementary patterns were positively associated with positive affect valence, this association was stronger for communal complementarity. Also, agentic complementarity impacted affect in cold interactions, while communal complementarity impacted affect in warm interactions, indicating that there are potentially more agentic motives driving cold interactions and communal motives driving warm interactions. Finally, an increase in communal complementarity was associated with an increase in affect arousal, while an increase in agentic complementarity was associated with a decrease in affect arousal, indicating affect arousal may communicate something other than satisfaction/frustration of interpersonal motives.

Chair

Aaron Pincus | Pennsylvania State University - University Park

Goals & Objectives

1. How to apply intensive repeated interpersonal assessment designs at different timescales.
2. How to analyze intensive repeated assessment data for research and clinical applications.
3. How to describe and discuss the implications of dynamic patterns of interpersonal behavior on emotion, motivation, well-being, and psychopathology.