Speaker: Dr. Jean-Philippe Laurenceau

Speaker: Dr. Jean-Philippe Laurenceau, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Delaware

Title: Using Intensive Longitudinal Methods to Study Dyadic Processes

Faculty Host: Dr. Dianne Chambless

Abstract: In recent decades, researchers have become increasingly interested in understanding people’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in their natural contexts. The commonality in methods for doing so—daily diary, experience sampling, and ecological momentary assessment methods—is that they all involve intensive longitudinal assessments. When applied to the study of relationships (e.g., marriages, therapist-patient dyads), intensive longitudinal methods allow researchers to examine dyadic processes in everyday life in a way that is not possible using traditional methods. Intensive longitudinal data, however, present several data analytic challenges (and opportunities) stemming from the various possible sources of interdependence in these data. In this talk, I will provide an overview of intensive longitudinal methods, focus on their application to dyadic processes, discuss data analytic issues and solutions unique to this sort of data, and report on some of our lab’s recent findings from couples coping with breast cancer.