The Ties That Matter: A Dynamic Approach to Assessing Physiological Linkage Within Different Emotional Contexts

Abstract

Romantic partners’ physiology can become linked in various ways, which may have implications for psychological wellbeing. The present study examined three interpersonal physiological patterns in 53 heterosexual couples during a mixed-emotion conversation. The three patterns were: 1) anti-phase, where partners’ physiology diverges, 2) in-phase, where partners’ physiology converges, and 3) uncoordinated, where partners’ physiology does not contain meaningful covariation. Measures that were used to estimate patterns of physiological linkage included respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and electrodermal activity (EDA). This study demonstrates how an Inertia-Coordination and Coupled Oscillator model (Butler & Barnard, 2019) can be used to distinguish among these three patterns of physiological linkage while accounting for emotional valance of conversation. Given that anti-phase RSA may imply coregulation, a process of mutual dampening ultimately contributing to emotional stability (Butler & Randall, 2013), this pattern was predicted to be associated with higher wellbeing (compared to other patterns) regardless of emotional context. In contrast, given that EDA is tied to arousal, in-phase EDA was predicted to be associated with higher wellbeing during predominately positive emotional contexts, but with lower wellbeing during negative emotional contexts. Results showed that wellbeing did not significantly differ between pattern of RSA linkage, but did significantly differ between pattern of EDA linkage during a more negative emotional context. These findings highlight the complex association between physiological linkage within different subsystems of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and wellbeing and contribute empirical evidence for the importance of considering emotional context.