Dynamics of Human Behavior: Modeling The Dynamics of Dyadic Interactions

这个项目的目的是开发数学和统计模型，用于研究二元相互作用的动力学。虽然大多数社会关系理论将互动描述为动态过程，但由于缺乏能够随时间推移捕捉此类过程的统计模型，因此它们的许多理论假设尚未得到验证。拟议的研究通过开发和比较替代的最先进的数学和统计模型来解决这一缺点，这些模型可以捕获二元体中相互作用的动态，因为这些相互作用会随着时间的推移而演变。这些模型将应用于从多个时间点的夫妻中收集的数据，以研究情感过程和情绪调节，测试来自心理学和社会学理论的关于关系质量和不稳定性的假设。最后，所开发的模型将被应用于其他类型的二元体（例如，婴儿看护者），其它两个元件的系统（例如，认知-情感），以及更复杂的社会系统（例如，婴儿-母亲-父亲三联征）。使用开发的模型来评估来自心理学和社会学理论的假设，应加强对二元互动的理解，并将扩大这一领域的理论发展。除了二元相互作用模型的进步，拟议的工作提出了几个更广泛的影响。其中包括对研究生和本科生（包括代表性不足的少数群体）进行研究培训，通过在科学期刊上发表文章传播研究成果，将方法和实质性成果纳入学术课程，以及将一些已开发的模型应用于临床环境的可能性，例如评估和预测关系质量和长期稳定性。

The purpose of this project is to develop mathematical and statistical models for examining the dynamics of dyadic interactions. Although most theories of social relations describe interactions as dynamic processes, many of their theoretical hypotheses remain untested because of a lack of statistical models that are capable of capturing such processes over time. The proposed research addresses this shortcoming by developing and comparing alternative state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical models that can capture the dynamics of interactions in dyads, as these interactions evolve over time. These models will be applied to data collected from couples at multiple time points to study affective processes and emotion regulation, to test hypotheses derived from psychological and sociological theories regarding relationship quality and instability over time. Finally, the developed models will be applied to other types of dyads (e.g., infant-caregiver), other systems of two elements (e.g., cognition-emotion), and more complex social systems (e.g., infant-mother-father triad). The use of the developed models to evaluate hypotheses derived from both psychological and sociological theories should enhance the understanding of dyadic interactions and will broaden the development of theory in this area. In addition to the advancement in models for dyadic interactions, the proposed work presents several broader impacts. These include research training of graduate and undergraduate students (including underrepresented minorities), dissemination of research through publications in scientific journals, integration of methodological and substantive results into the academic curriculum, and the possibility of applying some of the developed models to clinical settings, for example in the evaluation and prediction of relationship quality and stability over time.