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To demonstrate how a novel computer joystick coding method can illuminate the study of interpersonal processes in psychotherapy sessions, we applied it to Shostrom's (1966) well-known films in which a client, Gloria, had sessions with 3 prominent psychotherapists. The joystick method, which records interpersonal behavior as nearly continuous flows...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... these means, it is clear that not only did the three therapists have very different interpersonal styles but also that Gloria's interpersonal style was strongly affected by the therapist with whom she was interacting. The configuration of means is readily appreciated in Figure 2, where a white plus sign denotes each overall interper- sonal style (the centroid, which is the intersection of the person's control mean and affiliation mean). Among the therapists, Ellis and Perls had dominant styles, whereas Rogers had a submissive style; Rogers had the warmest style and Perls the coldest. ...
Context 2
... is because the actual patterns of variability do not necessarily follow the assumptions of a bivariate normal distribution (e.g., symmetry of the data points around the intersection of the means). Figure 2 shows the density distributions in a manner that preserves their actual shapes. For each person's interpersonal behavior, the darkest area is, in effect, a bivariate mode, showing what may be regarded as the person's interpersonal set point in the interaction. ...
Context 3
... the foregoing patterns of each partner's within-person variability are quite interesting, they cannot show important tem- poral dynamic aspects of the interaction that crucially interrelate the partners' behaviors. To illustrate, consider again the density plots for Ellis and Gloria with Ellis (in Figure 2). We wanted to know whether the occasions during which Ellis's interpersonal style veers toward submissiveness are associated with the occa- sions during which Gloria's interpersonal style veers toward greater dominance. ...
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Citations
... CAID can be used to describe and quantify behavioral exchanges within therapy sessions using objective coders. All three sessions from the famous "Gloria" films and a session with Dr. Donald Meichenbaum and his client Richard have been evaluated through the CIIT lens using CAID (Sadler et al., 2015;Thomas et al., 2014). Both studies demonstrated how therapist and client agentic and communal behavior can reciprocally influence each other momentto-moment within sessions, thus suggesting that clients may respond differently depending on the interpersonal style of the therapist. ...
A major foundation for all clinical competencies is the ability to sensitively attend to and understand the moment-to-moment processes occurring between trainees and their clients. The current article reports on the development and feasibility of a training protocol to help clinical trainees become more attuned to moment-to-moment processes during psychotherapy sessions within a practicum training setting. This study uses interpersonal processes as an exemplar of how to use this training framework. This protocol employs a novel methodology called Continuous Assessment of Interpersonal Dynamics in an innovative way by having clinical trainees and client dyads rate both self and others’ moment-to-moment interpersonal behavior across two psychotherapy sessions. Two therapist–client dyads completed this training protocol. Feedback was provided through data visualizations and narrative summaries of the data. Both trainees who participated in the present study reported that the feedback integrating questionnaire and moment-to-moment interpersonal variables was useful in their conceptualization of their clients’ problems, as well as in helping them reflect on their own interpersonal behavior in session. In this article, we combine theory and method to develop a feasible and empirically supported clinical training methodology that is applicable across treatment orientations. All materials to implement this training protocol are available on the Open Science Framework, allowing interested supervisors to integrate this training into their practica (https://osf.io/8f2th/).
... 10 data points (i.e., first 5 s) because coders need to settle into the interaction (e.g., Sadler et al., 2009;Thomas et al., 2014). To obtain mutual influence and mutual adaptation scores per candidate, we followed the approach outlined by Sadler et al. (2009) and decomposed the bivariate time series (i.e., two time series: one for the candidate and one for the role-player) by running in each time series regressions per dimension (affiliation or dominance) and roleplay. ...
... These results are similar to past studies (e.g., Dermody et al., 2017;Fox et al., 2021;P. Markey et al., 2010;Sadler et al., 2009;Thomas et al., 2014), and thus, we also aggregated the codings for each target, per time point, across the four coders. ...
In assessment and selection, organizations often include interpersonal interactions because they provide insights into candidates’ interpersonal skills. These skills are then typically assessed via one-shot, retrospective assessor ratings. Unfortunately, the assessment of interpersonal skills at such a trait-like level fails to capture the richness of how the interaction unfolds at the behavioral exchange level within a role-play assessment. This study uses the lens of interpersonal complementarity theory to advance our understanding of interpersonal dynamics in role-play assessment and their effects on assessor ratings. Ninety-six MBA students participated in four different flash role-plays as part of diagnosing their strengths and weaknesses. Apart from gathering assessor ratings and criterion measures, coders also conducted a fine-grained examination of how the behavior of the two interaction partners (i.e., MBA students and role-players) unfolded at the moment-to-moment level via the Continuous Assessment of Interpersonal Dynamics (CAID) measurement tool. In all role-plays, candidates consistently showed mutual adaptations in line with complementarity principles: Affiliative behavior led to affiliative behavior, whereas dominant behavior resulted in docile, following behavior and vice versa. For affiliation, mutual influence also occurred in that both interaction partners’ temporal trends in affiliation were entrained over time. Complementarity patterns were significantly related to ratings of in situ (role-playing) assessors but not to ratings of ex situ (remote) assessors. The effect of complementarity on validity was mixed. Overall, this study highlights the importance of going beyond overall ratings to capture behavioral contingencies such as complementarity patterns in interpersonal role-play assessment.
... A parent high in dominance and low in warmth during a particular moment of an interaction likely elicits submission and coldness from their adolescent in that moment (high dominance but low warmth complementarity), which then could influence the quality of the discussion, how receptive adolescents are to parents' messages, and be associated with important clinical outcomes, like adolescent substance use [8]. Further, deviations from complementarity have been hypothesized to be associated with psychopathology [31] and important therapeutic processes [32,33]. For instance, Nilsen et al. [15] tested whether warmth and dominance complementarity varied between children and their mothers as a function of child Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms. ...
... The CAID is an observational coding method where raters use a computer joystick to continuously assess changes in warmth and dominance during an interaction [13]. The CAID has successfully been applied to studies of married couples and romantic partners [10,11,16], patients and therapists [32,34], unacquainted undergraduates [13,35], and parents and their children [11,12,14,15]. These studies have yielded novel insights into interpersonal dynamics that would be missed with typical, aggregate assessments of interpersonal behavior. ...
... Shape refers to the within-person time series correlations between warmth and dominance. Shape can provide insight into whether an individual becomes more dominant as they become warmer [32,36] and can be estimated within a specific situation or across situations. ...
The Continuous Assessment of Interpersonal Dynamics (CAID) is an observational tool that measures warmth and dominance dynamics in real time and is sensitive to individual, dyadic, and contextual influences. Parent-adolescent interpersonal dynamics, which conceptually map onto parenting styles, are an integral part of positive adolescent adjustment and protect against risky outcomes. The current study’s goal was to test the degree to which sources of influence on CAID data observed in a previous study of married couples generalize to a sample of parent-adolescent dyads. We examined data from ten raters who rated moment-to-moment warmth and dominance using CAID in a sample of 61 parent-adolescent dyads (N = 122) who were largely non-Hispanic White (62%) or African American (30%) based on parent report (adolescent M age = 14; 57% female). Dyads interacted in four different discussion segments (situations). We applied Generalizability Theory to delineate several sources of variance in CAID parameters and estimated within and between-person reliability. Results revealed a number of different influences, including the person, kinsperson (adolescent versus parent), dyad, rater, situation, and interactions among these factors, on ratings of parent-adolescent interpersonal behavior. These results largely replicate results from married couples, suggesting that the factors that influence ratings of interpersonal interactions largely generalize across sample types.
... That is, a person does not act the same across all situations. CAID has been used to examine therapy sessions, showing that 1) complementarity differs when the same client sees multiple therapists (Thomas et al., 2014), and 2) complementarity changes over the course of therapy for one therapist-client dyad (Altenstein et al., 2013). Thus, personality dynamics can explain withinperson differences that arise from the interaction between habitual ways of responding and context. ...
... The seven research assistants were first trained using videos and CAID codes provided by prior investigators (Sadler et al., 2015;Thomas et al., 2014). All of these practice codes were of therapist-client dyads, and the research assistants compared these expert codes to their own codes. ...
The current study aimed to examine the relationship between personality traits and interpersonal states. Eighty undergraduate participants were administered personality trait inventories, then 40 dyads were video recorded doing collaborative tasks. These video recordings were coded for moment-to-moment communion and agency using Continuous Assessment of Interpersonal Dynamics. Actor-Partner Interdependence Modeling was used to understand the impact of personality traits on interpersonal dynamics (average, variability, slope, complementarity on agency and communion). The results showed that there were no relationships between personality traits and dynamics. There were two main limitations that may explain these results. First, behavior may have been influenced more by social norms to be friendly and take turns than personality traits, especially in this “strong situation”. Second, it may be useful to aggregate behavior over multiple situations to capture variance attributable to traits. Future studies should aggregate behavior over multiple situations and/or change the situational constraints on behavior in order to determine the relationship between states and traits.
... The effects of a lack of complementarity, that is, noncomplementarity, on interpersonal agency is a topic that has received little attention in the research community (e.g., Markey et al., 2010). Whereas peer dyads tend to naturally behave complementarily (Markey et al., 2010;Sadler et al., 2009), therapists often use noncomplementarity as a tool in psychotherapy to raise emotions in the client by challenging the expected patterns of interaction (Thomas et al., 2014). The few existing studies on noncomplementarity in peer interaction indicate that when the interlocutors fail in sustaining interpersonal complementarity, it negatively affects their interaction, experience of the other participants (Nowicki & Manheim, 1991), and their success in achieving the shared goals (Estroff & Nowicki, 1992). ...
... The CAID method has been validated by several studies in education (e.g., Pennings et al., 2018) and psychology (e.g., Thomas et al., 2014). To ensure coding validity, two researchers coded the data independently. ...
In student collaboration, purposeful peer interaction crucial for success on the task. Such collaboration requires adequate and purposeful student agency. Theoretically, the between-individual complementarity of agency behaviors enhances purposeful interaction. However, the level of agency of group members can disrupt the collaborative interactions. We conducted a case study of collaborative mathematical problem solving, where one student's behaviors of noncomplementary agency characterized the group interaction. We examined the video recording of the group by continuous quantitative coding of students' agency behaviors and segmented the interaction process into four phases. We analyzed qualitatively these phases based on the verbal transcript. We found that the target student's agency grew in relation to the other students despite her lack of mathematical competence. The findings provide us with a new perspective to understand the role of the situational individual agency in collaborative learning that underlines the tolerance of noncomplementarity of agency in student collaboration.
... Besides, distorted perceptions of oneself can also contribute and be expressions of a pathological grandiose self, a self-inflated image that underlies most narcissistic dysfunctions (Diamond & Hersh, 2020;John & Robins, 1994;Kernberg, 1975). Not only can interpersonal perceptions affect functional domains, but they can also be central aspects of the therapeutic relationship in treatment contexts (Luo et al., 2021;Sadler et al., 2015;Thomas et al., 2014). In-session interpersonal perceptions may be seen as a function of both realistic elements of the therapeutic relationship and transferential material of the patient (e.g., Gabbard, 2010). ...
Objective:
Evidence suggests that pathological narcissism impacts psychotherapy process and outcome. This study investigates whether traits of pathological narcissism account for distinctiveness (construal) of patients' interpersonal perceptions in treatment settings.
Methods:
Patients enrolled in psychological/psychotherapeutic treatment (N = 150) described a segment of a session in a written format and subsequently assessed both self- and clinician's behavior on the dimensions of dominance and hostility (patient-reported ratings), along with their pathological narcissistic traits. Three independent raters also assessed interpersonal behaviors (observer-reported ratings) based on the written session descriptions. Indices of construal were defined by the residuals of self-reported (net of observer-reported) ratings and were regressed onto pathological narcissistic traits.
Results:
No association emerged between pathological narcissism and construal in patients' perceptions of their clinicians. However, grandiose traits of pathological narcissism were related to distinctively perceiving oneself as more dominant, while vulnerable traits were related to distinctively perceiving oneself as more hostile. The former association (but not the latter) also held after incorporating additional observer ratings to investigate the robustness of the results.
Conclusion:
Findings are discussed in light of treatment-related self-enhancement and self-concealment processes.
... The IPC also can be used not only to map static dispositions, but also interpersonal transactions over time (e.g., the degree to which two people demonstrate complementarity in their interaction). Recent research has involved using moment-to-moment observational coding interactions between mothers and children, romantic partners, clinicians and patients in psychotherapy, and strangers (Assaad et al., 2020;Dermody et al., 2017;Fox et al., 2021;Klahr et al., 2013;Sadler et al., 2009;Thomas et al., 2014). Contemporary interpersonal theory thus provides a comprehensive model of the person and a suite of techniques to examine this model empirically. ...
Existentialism is one of the most influential intellectual traditions in Western philosophy, and interpersonal theory is one of the most influential clinical approaches in Western psychology. These two intellectual traditions have much in common. Their areas of seeming difference are also important, as they present areas in which one approach might complement the other. In this essay we examine this, providing an overview and synthesis of existential and interpersonal thought, after which we suggest directions for future research, application, and theoretical development.
... The Continuous Assessment of Interpersonal Dynamics (CAID) was used to measure dominance and warmth relatively continuously during the entire therapy session. The details of CAID have been described in previous studies (Hopwood et al., 2018;Luo et al., 2021;Sadler et al., 2009;Thomas et al., 2014). Briefly, trained coders used a computer joystick device to assess dominance and warmth moment to moment for each person separately. ...
... Complementarity was calculated as the cross-correlation between two time-residualized time series of therapist's and patient's warmth or dominance for each 30-s segment. Time was regressed out of all time series to avoid confounding linear trends with momentary dynamics (see Sadler et al., 2009;Thomas et al., 2014). Because each interpersonal variable (warmth or dominance) was recorded every half second automatically, there were 60 data points for each variable within each 30-s segment. ...
In this study, we aimed to examine how moment-to-moment interpersonal behaviors of warmth and dominance in patients and therapists, as well as interpersonal complementarity, are related to withdrawal and confrontation ruptures as sessions unfold. Sixteen psychotherapy sessions from eight independent therapeutic dyads were sampled for the highest level of alliance ruptures from a naturalistic psychotherapy data set featuring evidence-based psychodynamic psychotherapy for patients with interpersonal problems and personality pathology. Interpersonal behaviors, complementarity, and alliance ruptures were generated every 30 s within each session. Subgrouping within group iterative multiple model estimation (S-GIMME) was used to identify an idiographic network structure for each session and examine generalizability at the nomothetic and subgroup levels. Nomothetically, patients' dominance negatively predicted therapists' dominance concurrently, but positively predicted therapists' dominance with a 30-s lag; additionally, therapists' dominance predicted their own concurrent warmth. At the subgroup level, therapists being less dominant than typical predicted more concurrent withdrawal ruptures. Idiographic modeling revealed a high degree of heterogeneity in how interpersonal behaviors are associated with ruptures. More confrontation ruptures concurrently predicted higher dominance complementarity in one subgroup. This study demonstrated the interconnection between patients' and therapists' in-session behaviors as well as the role of therapists' behaviors in momentary rupture development. This study highlights the importance of attuning and responding to individualized, momentary therapeutic contexts in navigating ruptures, and emphasizes the value of idiographic relational network approaches to aid in psychotherapy research and case conceptualization. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
... This method allows researchers to record and analyze the dynamic exchanges of interpersonal behaviors in a controlled environment of interaction, often in a specified context (e.g., discussing a conflict topic). Prior research has associated momentary dyadic interpersonal patterns with multiple relationship and mental health outcomes such as relationship satisfaction and depressive symptoms (Lizdek, Woody, Sadler, & Rehman, 2016;Thomas, Hopwood, Woody, Ethier, & Sadler, 2014). ...
Personality disorders are rooted in maladaptive interpersonal behaviors. Previously, researchers have assessed interpersonal behaviors using self-ratings of one's own behaviors and third-person ratings of dyadic interactions. Few studies have examined individuals' perceptions of others' interpersonal behaviors. Using a sample of 470 undergraduate students, the authors examined patterns of interpersonal perception as well as influences of these patterns on psychological functioning. Findings showed that people tend to like interpersonal behaviors that are similar to their own and become bothered by behaviors that are the opposite of their own. Such a pattern is particularly characteristic on the warmth dimension and is consistent across different levels of closeness of the relationship. The authors also found small but significant effects of interpersonal perception on personality and general psychological functioning, above and beyond effects of individuals' own interpersonal traits. Such findings highlight the importance of including perceptions of others in investigating interpersonal dynamics when understanding personality disorders.
... Because of the current limitations in direct applications to capture dynamic therapeutic process in AMPD, we use interpersonal theory in this paper instead. Interpersonal theory offers a model of personality that (a) aligns closely with the AMPD model for both Criterion A and Criterion B conceptually and empirically (Wright et al., 2012;Dowgwillo et al., 2018;Pincus, 2018); (b) can do a better job in integrating and distinguishing the structure and the functioning of personality than the current AMPD model; and (c) can be applied to understand dynamic processes in clinical practice to illustrate the connection between the relatively abstract AMPD concepts with dynamic clinical phenomena (Thomas et al., 2014;Sadler et al., 2015). ...
... Quantifying moment-to-moment changes in ruptures will allow for a more direct application of the framework to clinical practice in real time. In contrast, examination of within-session patterns of ruptures can inform us regarding how ruptures developed and decreased within each session and what interpersonal behaviors from either the patient or the therapist was predictors, signals, or consequences of ruptures (e.g., Altenstein et al., 2013;Thomas et al., 2014;Sadler et al., 2015;Li et al., 2020). If interpersonal behaviors at previous moments are predictors of certain ruptures later, clinical discussions may focus on understanding why these interpersonal behaviors represent recurrent triggers for therapeutic tension. ...
... The advantage of examining the Gloria films is that it is one of the rare videos that demonstrate psychotherapy with the same patient and three different therapists (Barbosa et al., 2017); thus, it is possible to compare dyad-specific interpersonal patterns in ruptures with the same patient. Additionally, while the Gloria films have been one of the most studied psychotherapy demonstration videos (e.g., Kiesler and Goldston, 1988;Thomas et al., 2014), no studies have examined the momentary development of alliance ruptures and their interpersonal manifestations in these videos. The premise of this study is that doing so may provide a model for research that could ultimately inform practitioners regarding how the challenges in building therapeutic alliance arise and deescalate in concert with interpersonal dynamics. ...
The Alternative Model of Personality Disorders (AMPD) integrates several theoretical models of personality functioning, including interpersonal theory. The interpersonal circumplex dimensions of warmth and dominance can be conceptualized as traits similar to those in AMPD Criterion B, but interpersonal theory also offers dynamic hypotheses about how these variables that change from moment to moment, which help to operationalize some of the processes alluded to in AMPD Criterion A. In the psychotherapy literature, dynamic interpersonal behaviors are thought to be critical for identifying therapeutic alliance ruptures, yet few studies have examined moment-to-moment interpersonal behaviors that are associated with alliance ruptures at an idiographic level. The current study examined the concurrent and cross-lagged relationships between interpersonal behaviors and alliance ruptures within each session in the famous Gloria films (“Three Approaches to Psychotherapy”). Interpersonal behaviors (warmth and dominance) as well as alliance ruptures (i.e., withdrawal and confrontation) were calculated at half minute intervals for each dyad. We identified distinct interpersonal patterns associated with alliance ruptures for each session: Gloria (patient)’s warmth was positively related with withdrawal ruptures concurrently in the session with Carl Rogers; Gloria’s dominance and coldness were related with increased confrontation ruptures in the session with Fritz Perls concurrently, while her coldness was also predicted by confrontation ruptures at previous moments; lastly, both Gloria’s dominance and Albert Ellis’s submissiveness were positively related with withdrawal ruptures. These interpersonal patterns demonstrated the promise of using AMPD dimensions to conceptualize momentary interpersonal processes related to therapy ruptures, as well as the clinical importance of attuning to repetitive, dyad-specific interpersonal cues of ruptures within each session.