Invited Symposium
Multidimensional aspects of couple functioning
Sarah Galdiolo (1) and Lesley Verhofstadt (2)
(1) UMons; (2) UGent
Why study couple functioning? Engaging in a romantic relationship is one of the most important life experiences in adulthood. A satisfying intimate relationship is an important predictor of many aspects of one’s life, such as happiness, psychological and physical health, social and professional life, or even children’s behavioural and emotional development. Therefore, couple (dys)functioning represents a real societal issue and the interactional mechanisms underlying it warrant to be better understood. This current symposium concentrates on emotional and non-verbal aspects of couple interactions in five presentations. The first presentation (Berlamont, UGent; Sels, UGent; Verhofstadt, UGent; Ceulemans, KULeuven; Ickes, University of Texas; Hinnekens, UGent) will focus on affect and empathic accuracy during conflict interactions. The second presentation (Sels, UGent; Ickes, University of Texas; Hinnekens, UGent; Ceulemans, KULeuven; Verhofstadt, UGent) will investigate how expressing thoughts and feelings leads to greater empathic accuracy during relationship conflict. The third presentation (Denis & Meillerais, UMons) will present a model to evaluate nonverbal couple interactions during a therapeutic session. The fourth presentation (Galdiolo, UMons; Gaugue, UMons; Mikolajczak, UCLouvain; Van Cappellen, University of Duke) will focus on the development of trait emotional intelligence in parental couples. The last presentation (Schouten, KULeuven; Boiger, KULeuven; Kirchner, University of Kent; Uchida, Kyoto University; Mesquita, KULeuven) will analyse and compare interpersonal emotion regulation in Japanese and Belgian couples.
Speaker 1: Associations between affect and empathic accuracy during conflict interactions in couples
Liesbet Berlamont (1), Laura Sels (1), Eva Ceulemans (2), William Ickes (3), Celine Hinnekens (1) and Lesley Verhofstadt (1)
(1) UGent; (2) KU Leuven; (3) The University of Texas at Arlington, USA
Although affect is widely recognized as influencing cognition, little is known about the association between affect and empathic accuracy, or the extent to which a person accurately infers another person’s feelings and thoughts. The current research examined how intimate partners’ affect is related -on a moment to moment basis- to their level of empathic accuracy during conflict interactions. To this end, the data of two laboratory-based studies (n=155 and n=172) were used, in which couples participated in a conflict interaction task, followed by a video-review task during which they reported on their own feelings and thoughts and inferred those of their partner at different moments in the interaction. We found across both studies that at moments when both partners experience emotions of the same valence, they are better at reading the minds of their partner. In addition, Study 2 showed lower levels of empathic accuracy for feelings at those moments where a person was feeling positive while his/her partner was feeling negative. Study 2 furthermore revealed lower levels of empathic accuracy for thoughts at those moments where a person was feeling negative (as compared to neutral). These findings underscore the interpersonal aspect of empathic accuracy and have important implications for couple therapy.
Speaker 2: Expressing thoughts and feelings leads to greater empathic accuracy during relationship conflict
Laura Sels (1), William Ickes (2), Celine Hinnekens (1), Eva Ceulemans (1) and Lesley Verhofstadt (1)
(1) UGent; (2) The University of Texas at Arlington, USA
Many couple therapies focus on enhancing the disclosure of thoughts and feelings, and on an accurate understanding of these. But does the expression of thoughts and feelings lead to better empathic accuracy, as is generally assumed? In this study, we explicitly tested a dynamic expression-leading-to-accuracy account of empathic accuracy in intimate relationships. Specifically, in the conflict interactions of 155 couples, we (1) investigated whether greater momentary expressions of the target (self-reported vs. observed) were associated with more empathic accuracy in the perceiver; (2) whether this outcome was similar for the expression of thoughts vs. feelings; and (3) whether the expression-leading-to-accuracy relationship was moderated by the perceived threat level of these thoughts and feelings. The data revealed that greater expression of the target’s thoughts and feelings (both self-reported and observed) was associated with better empathic accuracy by the partner; that this association was similar for thoughts and feelings; and that this link was not moderated by the perceived threat level of these thoughts and feelings. These findings confirm a fundamental assumption of couples therapy and have important implications for therapeutic interventions.
Speaker 3: Evaluation of conjugal interactions based on nonverbal communication and the construction of conjugal dialogue
Jennifer Denis (1) and Sandie Meillerais (1)
(1) UMons
The aim of this research is to propose a psychological model for the evaluation of conjugal interactions based on nonverbal communication during a therapeutic session. Nonverbal communication has the advantage of making people’s internal state visible. Indeed, it is difficult for any individual to conceal or suppress his nonverbal behaviors, these often described as spontaneous relevant matter for the understanding of conjugal/parental dialogue. Therefore marital nonverbal interactions offers the possibility to facilitate
professionals of mental care to become aware of the relational state of a conjugal/parental couple who comes for a therapeutic consultation. Thereby, it is essential to provide a psychological model to these caregivers to sharp their sense of observation and to develop a reliable, objective and explicit opinion on relational dynamics of a couple in order to clarify their therapeutic decisions and reduce the gap between verbal and nonverbal interactions. Our study proposes an evaluation model of conjugal interactions based on Akister's (1993) theories developed in 4 observational axes : the tensions (T), the attitudes (A), the exchange of glances (R), and the degree of cooperation of the two spouses during the development of the joint speech (D). These 4 axes will be explained by using videos and described with clinical cases.
professionals of mental care to become aware of the relational state of a conjugal/parental couple who comes for a therapeutic consultation. Thereby, it is essential to provide a psychological model to these caregivers to sharp their sense of observation and to develop a reliable, objective and explicit opinion on relational dynamics of a couple in order to clarify their therapeutic decisions and reduce the gap between verbal and nonverbal interactions. Our study proposes an evaluation model of conjugal interactions based on Akister's (1993) theories developed in 4 observational axes : the tensions (T), the attitudes (A), the exchange of glances (R), and the degree of cooperation of the two spouses during the development of the joint speech (D). These 4 axes will be explained by using videos and described with clinical cases.
Speaker 4: Development of trait emotional intelligence in response to childbirth : A longitudinal couple perspective
Sarah Galdiolo (1), J. Gaugue (1), Moira Mikolajczak (2) and P. Van Cappellen (3)
(1) UMons; (2) UCLouvain; (3) Duke University, USA
The aim of the current paper was to investigate the influence of childbirth on parents’ trait emotional intelligence (EI). A three-wave longitudinal research program (during the second trimester of pregnancy, at 6 months postpartum, and at 1 year postpartum) using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model with a hierarchical linear modeling was conducted on 204 parental couples with parental group (i.e., primiparous and multiparous parents) as a time-invariant predictor and the partner’s EI development as a time-varying covariate. Results showed that parents’ EI was stable, except for Self-Control that increases after childbirth. Moreover, there was a significant negative association between the actor’s and the partner’s development around childbirth. Childbirth pushes parents to function in dyad rather than individually. Compensatory effects may be observed between both parents in terms of emotional management of parenting: When one partner cannot cope emotionally with parenting, the other partner would compensate and better manage the emotional aspects of parenting. The discussion underlined the importance of the dyadic perspective in understanding the childbirth experience, specifically the parents’ receptivity to variation in their partners’ emotional levels.
Speaker 5: Interpersonal emotion regulation in Japanese and Belgian couples
Anna Schouten (1), Michael Boiger (1), Alexander Kirchner (2), Yukiko Uchida (3) and Batja Mesquita (1)
(1) KU Leuven; (2) University of Kent, UK; (3) Kyoto University, Japan
Emotions unfold dynamically and interdependently over the course of couple interactions. For example, a wife’s anger may cause her husband to feel angry, while a wife’s empathy may cause her husband to feel calm. Previous research has found that these dyadic emotional trajectories differ across cultures: Belgian couple interactions gravitate towards mutual annoyance, whereas Japanese couple interactions gravitate towards mutual empathy. Yet, little is known about the underlying process that accounts for cultural differences in these dyadic emotional states. In this study, we propose that interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) and, more precisely, the culturally specific use of IER strategies promotes cultural differences in dyadic emotional states. First, we predict that Japanese couples more commonly use other-accepting IER strategies whereas Belgian couples use other-rejecting IER strategies. Second, we predict that the use of these IER strategies is associated with the partners’ experience of culturally prevalent emotional states (annoyance in Belgium and empathy in Japan). To test these predictions, we coded disagreement interactions of N=58 Belgian and N=80 Japanese couples for IER behaviors using the Specific Affect Coding System (SPAFF). In line with our predictions, the findings indicate that IER behaviors differ across cultures and account for the dyadic emotional states in each culture. These results thus shed a first light on the interpersonal process whereby partners regulate each other’s emotions towards culturally valued emotional states.
