State of the Art of Interpersonal Physiology in Psychotherapy: A Systematic Review - PubMed (original) (raw)

Review

State of the Art of Interpersonal Physiology in Psychotherapy: A Systematic Review

Johann R Kleinbub. Front Psychol. 2017.

Abstract

Introduction: The fast expanding field of Interpersonal Physiology (IP) focuses on the study of co-ordination or synchronization dynamics between the physiological activities of two, or more, individuals. IP has been associated with various relational features (e.g., empathy, attachment security, rapport, closeness…) that overlap with desirable characteristics of clinical relationships, suggesting that the relevant studies might provide objective, economical, and theory-free techniques to investigate the clinical process. The goal of the present work is to systematically retrieve and review the literature on IP in the field of psychotherapy and psychological intervention, in order to consolidate the knowledge of this research domain, highlight its critical issues, and delineate possible developments. Method: Following the guidelines by Okoli and Schabram (2010), a systematic literature search was performed in Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and PubMed databases by means of multiple keyword combinations; the results were integrated with references to the retrieved articles' bibliography as well as to other published reviews on IP. Results: All the retrieved documents reported clinical interactions that are characterized, at least partially, by IP phenomena. They appear to use fragmented and sometimes ambiguous terminology and show a lack of both specific theory-informed hypotheses and sound analytical procedures. Conclusion: Although the psychological nature of IP and its role in the clinical relationship are still mostly unknown, the potential value of a physiology-based measure of implicit exchanges in psychotherapy drives an acceleration in this research field. On the basis of the highlighted critical issues, possible future directions for clinical IP researchers are discussed.

Keywords: counseling; interpersonal physiology; physiologic concordance; physiological linkage; physiological synchronization; physiological synchrony; psychophysiology; psychotherapy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Timeline of publications on IP in psychotherapy by decade.

References

    1. Bales R. F. (1951). Interaction Process Analysis: A Method for the Study of Small Groups. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley Press, Inc.
    1. Barrett-Lennard G. T. (1986). The relationship inventory now: issues and advances in theory, method, and use, in The Psychotherapeutic Process: A Research Handbook, eds Greemberg L. S., Pinsof W. M. (New York, NY: Guilford Press; ), 439–476.
    1. Benedek M., Kaernbach C. (2010). A continuous measure of phasic electrodermal activity. J. Neurosci. Methods 190, 80–91. 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2010.04.028 -DOI -PMC -PubMed
    1. Boker S. M., Rotondo J. L., Xu M., King K. (2002). Windowed cross-correlation and peak picking for the analysis of variability in the association between behavioral time series. Psychol. Methods 7, 338–355. 10.1037/1082-989X.7.3.338 -DOI -PubMed
    1. Butler E. A., Randall A. K. (2013). Emotional coregulation in close relationships. Emot. Rev. 5, 202–210. 10.1177/1754073912451630 -DOI

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources