Searching for Togetherness: The Simultaneous Treatment of a Mother and Her Early Adolescent Daughter

Simultaneous treatment involves the separate treatment of parent and child by the same therapist. In this supportive–expressive psychotherapy, the focus of treatment is on the connecting points in the relationship between parent and child that cause each member of the dyad to experience difficulties ranging from enmeshment to alienation. The context provided by the parent–child relationship provides a background for the actual, as well as the potential, identities of each of its members. While transforming elements of this relationship radiate change outward, affecting the larger family unit, facets of the parent–child relationship also affect the inner subjective experience and personality structure of each participant. What characterizes this treatment method is not only external arrangements but also the complex nature of the developing transference–countertransference relationships. The therapist is the nodal point, integrating levels of reality by experiencing and communicating new understandings to each member of the dyad.     

When training with a partner is inferior to training alone: the importance of dyad type and interaction quality

Dyad training, where trainees learn in pairs but ultimately perform individually, has been shown to be an effective method for training some skills. The effectiveness of this approach, however, may be tied to the type of task to be trained and the quality of the interaction in the dyad. We report two studies on the effectiveness of dyad training and the role of metacognitive activity for learning a software program. In Study 1, participants completed training alone or with a partner. Performance was assessed individually immediately after training and again after a 1-week nonuse interval. Results of Study 1 suggested that learning retention is superior when people are trained individually. Study 2 examined performance for individuals, task-switching dyads, and interdependent dyads. Results also showed that performance for individuals was superior to dyads and that the type of dyad collaboration did not affect performance. However, partner-prompted metacognitive activity was helpful for interdependent dyads and harmful for task-switching dyads, suggesting that the quality of collaboration varies by dyad type. Our findings suggest that dyad training may not be effective for all types of tasks. Possible boundary conditions for effective dyad training are discussed.     

Spousal similarity in depression: a dyadic latent panel analysis of the panel study of Belgian households

Dyadic latent panel analysis (DLPA) was applied to eight waves of the Panel Study of Belgium Households (N = 954 couples). DLPA decomposes the observed variance of both members of a dyad into variance due to stable factors, factors that gradually change over time, and occasion-specific factors including random error. Total observed similarity between members of a dyad on one occasion is decomposed into stable similarity, similarity in factors that change over time, and occasion-specific similarity. The results show that depressive symptoms are influenced by stable and changing factors and that spousal similarity in both factors contribute to spousal similarity in depression on a single occasion. Spousal similarity in factors that change gradually over time suggests that shared-environmental factors contribute to depressive symptoms.     

Gender and the Communication of Emotion Via Touch

We reanalyzed a data set consisting of a U.S. undergraduate sample (N?=?212) from a previous study (Hertenstein et al. 2006a) that showed that touch communicates distinct emotions between humans. In the current reanalysis, we found that anger was communicated at greater-than-chance levels only when a male comprised at least one member of a communicating dyad. Sympathy was communicated at greater-than-chance levels only when a female comprised at least one member of the dyad. Finally, happiness was communicated only if females comprised the entire dyad. The current analysis demonstrates gender asymmetries in the accuracy of communicating distinct emotions via touch between humans.     

Negative oedipal transference of a male patient to his female analyst during the termination phase

There has been some debate in the literature concerning the ability of the male patient to experience his paternal, and particularly negative oedipal, transference feelings directly toward his female analyst. In this context, the author describes paternal transference manifestations evident throughout her male patient's analysis, and presents detailed process material from the termination phase. At this time the patient's obsessional neurosis was revived in the context of setting a termination date, and transference to the negative oedipal father could be clearly demonstrated. The paper illustrates that even the negative oedipal component of the paternal transference can be experienced directly in the male patient/female analyst, dyad, and interpretation of this material can bring it into clearer focus. The author discusses some possible influences of her sex on the timing and intensity of the material.     

How do I Analyze Thee? Let Me Count the Ways: Considering Empathy in Couple Relationships using Self and Partner Ratings

In this article we describe some of the benefits and challenges of using self ratings and ratings of the partner to measure empathy and similar terms in couple research. If both members of the dyad are assessed, there will be four measures of the same variable. How to use these 4 measures in research and clinical work is a central question in this paper. We demonstrate 3 different latent models that can be used to analyze these ratings based on different theoretical premises. Using empathy as the independent variable with a longitudinal sample of 275 couples, structural equation models are used to evaluate the strength of these models in predicting relationship satisfaction. The findings indicate that the model that is consistent with the social constructionist perspective that focuses on the perceptions within the same person is a good fit to the data. Other models that compare ratings between members of the dyad do not fit the data well. The results demonstrate that perceptions of empathy do have a significant influence on relationship satisfaction across time, especially for females. However, it is largely males' perceptions of empathy of the self and the partner that influence relationship satisfaction for females.     

Influence of Gender Roles on Perceptions of Teacher/Adolescent Student Sexual Relations

In this study we explored the effects of respondent gender and the specific gender combination (i.e., cross- and same-gender dyads) on perceptions of a sexual encounter between a teacher and an adolescent student. Respondents (120 male and 120 female undergraduates) read a brief scenario and answered questions about their perceptions of the encounter. Significant interactions emerged between teacher gender and student gender. For example, the male teacher/male student dyad was viewed as the least normative, and the female teacher/male student dyad was perceived as the most normative. Significant interactions also were found between teacher gender and respondent gender. Results generally were consistent with gender role stereotypes.     

The relationship of attraction and sex composition to performance and nonperformance experimental outcomes in dyads

An experimental comparison of same- and mixed-sex dyads was conducted to investigate the relationship of interpersonal attraction and dyad sex composition to performance and nonperformance experimental outcomes. Ninety dyads each performed one verbal and one quantitative problem-solving task. Significant differences in speed of performance were found for dyad sex composition, but not for attraction. Attraction had its strongest impact on dyadic satisfaction, a non-performance outcome of the experiment. Among the all-female dyads racial composition of the dyad was significantly related to satisfaction: interracial dyads had higher levels of satisfaction than intraracial dyads. The results fail to demonstrate a significant association between attraction and performance, but do confirm that attraction and satisfaction are related, an assumption of the social exchange framework.The author wishes to thank Carl Castore, Angela M. O'Rand, and Mary Glenn Wiley for their comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this article.     

Stress,sex, and satisfaction in marriage

Using data from 198 couples, this study examines whether associations between stress occurring outside of the dyad and key indicators of relationship functioning are mediated by stress arising within the dyad. Findings suggest that relationship satisfaction and sexual activity are governed by hassles and problems experienced within the dyad that are in turn related to stress arising outside the dyad. Associations between external stress and relationship functioning are stronger for daily hassles than for critical life events. Higher levels of daily stress predicted less sexual activity for maritally dissatisfied women and more sexual activity for maritally dissatisfied men. Self‐reports of stress covaried with self‐reported indexes of satisfaction and sexuality, suggesting that contextual influences are broadly influential in intimate relationships.     

Teaching chained skills in a non-school setting using a divided half instructional format

This investigation evaluated the use of dyadic instructional arrangements in teaching chained skills to four students with moderate mental retardation. Each instructional dyad consisted of two students. Each of the three cooking skills was divided into two equal parts, and each student in a dyad received direct instruction on one part of the task analysis during each instructional session. During the following session, the two parts were reversed and a student received instruction on the second part. A constant time delay procedure was used to teach the targeted skills in an off-campus setting. A multiple probe design across skills and replicated across students evaluated the effectiveness of the instructional procedure and teaching arrangement. Results indicate that each of the four students learned the three cooking skills. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Male/Female Gaze in Same-Sex and Mixed-Sex Dyads Gender-Linked Differences and Mutual Influence

In this study, 108 university students (54 men and 54 women) were each videotaped in two 8-minute problem-solving dyadic interactions: (1) same-sex, and (2) mixed-sex. Trained observers coded the interactions for simultaneous, moment-to-moment gaze and talk behavior of both interactants. MANOVA results for three dyad types (male/male, female/female, and male/female) measured on 10 dyad gaze/talk variables showed that F/F dyads exhibited more mutual gaze/mutual talk and mutual gaze/mutual silence than either M/M or M/F dyads. F/F dyads exhibited less one gazes/same talks and mutual avert/one talks than either M/M or M/F dyads. No differences were found between M/M and M/F dyads on any variable. Analyses of individual change scores from same-sex to mixed-sex dyads indicated that the women in the M/F dyads converged to the male behavior in that dyad condition, whereas the men remained unchanged. The results are discussed in terms of speech accommodation theory.     

The Induction of Self-Reliance: An Experimental Study of Independence in the Face of Failure*

The development of dependency, rather than autonomy, in professional and paraprofessional helping relationships represents a practical and theoretical problem. In the present research an attempt is made experimentally to examine this issue from the viewpoint of the self-perception hypothesis. From this perspective, immersion in the successful helping dyad was expected to foster an increased belief in self as other-reliant, and, through cognitive balance, a lessened belief in self as self-reliant. The fiidings indicate that such different dimensions of help as intensity, duration, and choice variously affect these attributions to self, and that these attributions in turn affect the strength of behavioral independence when failure is encountered outside the helping dyad. Some practical and theoretical implications are discussed concerning the role of induction from self-performance in mapping self-related beliefs.     

Actor‐Partner Interdependence Models (APIM) and Voting Behavior: Methodology and Applications

Recently, the social sciences have witnessed a rising interest in dyadic design, as an efficient way to disentangle mechanisms of interpersonal influence. Despite the relevance of this design to political research, few efforts have been made to collect and efficiently analyze dyadic data. In this article, we suggest the Actor‐Partner Interdependence Model as a useful tool to test bidirectional effects in dyadic data on political attitudes and behaviors. The model explicitly assumes that members of a dyad (reciprocally identified as actor and partner) involved in political communication are interdependent and influence each other. We apply the model to estimate the effect of partner's party identification on actor's vote choice, using 1996 Indianapolis–St. Louis dyadic data. Results show that partner's party identification is significantly associated with vote choice. Moreover, we show that influence between dyad members is moderated by their intimacy and that an increased difference in socioeconomic status between dyad members tips the balance of the effect in favor of the individual with more resources. Our conclusions point to the effectiveness of APIM in modeling interdependent asymmetric relations and call for increasing efforts in collecting dyadic data and in developing proper tools for their analysis.     

A preliminary report on the use of a new method of presenting the Rorschach Test to evaluate the relationship of couples

The authors present a new relational Rorschach Test for couples. First, the Rorschach is given individually, then it is administered to the couple together, when they have the task of agreeing on one interpretation for each card. All ten cards are used. The protocols, transcribed from the video tape, are analysed in order to evaluate:

• the typology of the dyad in the light of the concepts of symmetry and complementarity;

• communication within the dyad in terms of: single messages, single message sequences, and of the evaluation of the subjects capacity to understand each other;

• data obtained through task performance such as, which partner formulates the interpretation agreed on and which one decides on the interpretation.

An application of the method to a couple, one of whom is alcoholic, is presented.     

The effects of live parental infant-directed singing on infants,parents, and the parent-infant dyad: A systematic review of the literature

Singing to infants is widely accepted as an enjoyable, positive, and beneficial interaction between the parent and infant across cultures. Whilst the literature suggests that live infant-directed singing impacts the infant, the parent doing the singing and the dyad in powerful ways, no systematic review of the evidence has yet been conducted. To this end, this systematic review identified 21 studies that investigated the effect of live parental infant-directed singing. These impacts were categorized as either being directly related to the infant, the parent, or the parent-infant dyad. Three main themes – one for each of the impact categories considered – were identified using thematic analysis techniques; infant-directed singing impacts on: infants’ emotional regulation, provides validation of the parent’s role, and promotes affect attunement within the dyad. The findings reinforce the benefits of live parental infant-directed singing for all parties involved, particularly when parents sing to typically developing infants born at full term. In contrast, the findings were inconsistent for pre-term infants. The implications of these findings are discussed.