Sincronia psicofisiológica e neuroticismo na díade de casal

Abstract

The present study aimed to understand the influence of the personality trait Neuroticism in the pattern of psychophysiological synchrony between partners of a romantic dyad and, accordingly, in their satisfaction with their conjugal relationship. To that end, we recorded the heart rate activity of seven heterosexual couples (N=14 participants) during a baseline task (description of neutral objects) and during verbal interaction tasks focused on negative or positive aspects of their partner or relationship. Prior to that, each participant had completed two questionnaires, the NEO-FFI and the R-DAS, which allowed the assessment of their Neuroticism personality trait and their dyadic satisfaction, respectively. Based on the recordings of heart rate activity during the verbal interactions of the two elements of a couple, psychophysiological synchrony indices of each couple were calculated. Similar to previous studies, it was found that psychophysiological synchrony levels were higher during negative interactions in comparison with positive ones, although these differences did not reach statistical significance. Moreover, no statistically significant association was found between psychophysiological synchrony levels and Neuroticism and dyadic satisfaction scores. The scope, limitations and possible future directions deriving from this study are discussed.

Date of Award	24 Jul 2017
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Patrícia Oliveira-Silva (Supervisor) & Eugénia Alexandra Sabino da Silva Fernandes (Co-Supervisor)