Thèses sur le sujet « DYADIC AND TRIADIC INTERACTIONS »

The transition to parenthood is a phase of the family development, in which the individual’s organization, couple’s and intergenerazitional’s relationships need to be renegotiated on representational and interactive level. On this way, it is necessary to adopt a contextual perspective to investigate the family development: partner’s satisfactions of the couple, the construction of relationship in the adult age and the acquisition of parent role. The study has two main aims: a) the degree of marital satisfaction perceived by the couple and the quality of triadic family interactions; b) the associations between triadic family interactions, the degree of marital satisfaction and the quality of attachment’s representation. Method: 49 non-referred primiparous families were recruited at child-birth courses took part to the research at 7 month of pregnancy at 4 and 9 and 12 month after child’s birth. The measures used are the Losanna Trilogue Play (Fivaz-Depeursige, Corboz-Warnery, 1999) in pre and post-natal version, Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1976), Attachment Style Questionnaire (Feeney, Noller, Hanrahan, 1994) and Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan & Main, 1985). Results: Aim 1. The preliminary analysis from pregnancy to 9th month of infant show that: a) couples perceive themselves satisfied on the relation’s quality. During the observational phases there is an effect of time in the degree of marital satisfaction perceived by the couple (F(4.54, 3), p< .005) ; b) there is an increase of 15,5 point in each observational phases of the quality of triadic interaction from pregnancy to 9 months of the infant. Aim 2. The quality of triadic interaction, in pregnancy, are associated with high levels of marital satisfaction. Significant correlation between Coherence of mind mean scores and Cooperation score during LTP prenatal (r = .384; p = .006). Conclusions: the marital relationship perceived as satisfactory is linked with a good quality of co-parenting interactions, from pregnancy to 9 months of infant. Forthcoming analyses will provide a comprehensive model to understand the developmental trajectories of family life in the first year of the infant.

Communication is one of the core clinical skills and has been taught at medical schools in many countries for some 30 years. However, the use of ad hoc and professional interpreters in medical consultations has imposed new challenges on the medical professionals’ communication skills and medical education. Traditional communication models have not provided guidance for working with different types of interpreters. Researchers and educators have been striving to develop new communication models to guide education and practice. However, these models are limited in many ways. This research points out that more research is needed to provide a better understanding of interpreted medical consultations, especially of people’s verbal behaviour in talk-in-interaction. Based on this, a more effective communication model can be developed to remedy the limitations the current models have. Therefore, the research has two goals: namely, to develop a better understanding of the interpreted medical consultation and to develop communication skills for work with interpreters. Using conversation analysis (CA) the research investigated 7 naturally recorded GP consultations involving either ad hoc or professional interpreters. Three languages, Slovak, Mirpuri Punjabi and Urdu, were included. GP interviews and focus groups were conducted for member checking and enhancing the validity of the research results. The research has investigated the turn-taking and turn-design of the interpreted medical consultations and established two theoretical frameworks which provide a generic understanding of the participants’ verbal behaviour in the interaction. Based on the frameworks this research has developed 12 communication strategies orienting to behavioural change of the doctor so as to improve the overall communication. The strategies are useful not only for the training of GPs but also other medical professionals and professional interpreters.

The research for this dissertation focused on how children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) use language in their interactions with peers. The study had three broad objectives: (1) to ascertain patterns of language use by the children with SLI in different contexts, (2) to evaluate the relationship of those patterns to difficulties in peer interaction reported in the literature, and (3) to explore the ramifications of groups composed uniquely of children with SLI for peer talk and peer interaction.
The participants were several children (mean age 4 years, 10 months) enrolled in a preschool language program designed specifically for children with SLI. These children were observed in a number of contexts over a period of several weeks.
The children with SLI were first observed in dyadic play with different conversational partners. Initiating and responding, communicative acts, and communication breakdowns were examined. Dyads composed of two children with SLI were more successful in some aspects of conversation, while mixed dyads, composed of one child with SLI and one with TLD, were more successful in others. The conversational behaviours of the children with SLI were, however, generally quite similar to their peers with TLD.
The same children with SLI were observed during recess and during free play in their classroom. There were no significant differences in interactional patterns across the two group play contexts. In both contexts, the children with SLI spent significantly more time in interactive activity than in solitary activity, and most of that interaction was verbal. They tended, even during recess when other interlocutors were available, to talk and interact among themselves, and there was evidence of stable friendships within the SLI group.
Snack, circle time, and pretend play sequences were also observed. A schema for the analysis of children's discourse was piloted. The analysis showed that the children with SLI used language for a variety of instrumental and interactional purposes, and did so in ways that were consistent with those reported in the literature for children with TLD.
The combined results indicated pragmatic strengths and successful peer interaction in this group of children with SLI. These results can be explained by characteristics of the children and of the program in which they were enrolled.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-87). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

This study investigates how dyadic and triadic groupings affect the nature of the learning processes and social interactions that take place between 11-12 year-old children in science lessons. Historically, in the English secondary school system, Key Stage 3 pupils, (11-14 year-oIds) are grouped according to the availability of resources. Dyads and triads are the most common groupings. There has been considerable research around the effect of group size on pupils' learning generally, but little of this has been· focused on science per se and none, as far as can be determined, has specifically compared science learning within dyadic and triadic groupings. In the study reported here, 146 eleven and twelve year old pupils were pre-tested using a science-reasoning test. On the basis of their scores, the pupils were assigned to work as dyads or triads, where each individual in a dyad or triad had an identical or similar score to the rest of their group. An integrated quantitative and qualitative approach was adopted using multiple methods of data collection. Videotaped observation was used to record pupil discussions as they carried out science tasks in their dyad or triad. Additional data were collected through pupil questionnaires and interviews. The results show that the frequency of disputational disagreement was higher amongst triads than dyads during discussion based activities. However for the practical activity, . there .was little difference in the nature of transactions. For dyads, working without friends produced talk which was more characteristic of exploratory talk than when working with friends.

The business environment has become increasingly complex and dynamic in recent years, requiring companies to compete in a fast-developing and fast-changing environment. In order for companies to maintain sustained competitive advantage and success, they increasingly engage in various forms of inter-organizational alliances, which enable the creation of value. Value creation through alliances is often seen as a result of a purely collaborative behavior however, it can also result from the presence of collaboration and competition simultaneously. Thus, one form of inter-organizational alliances that has become increasingly popular both scientifically and practically in the last two decades is coopetition, the paradoxical relationship that arises when two or more companies cooperate and compete with each other at the same time. We have detected three gaps in previous research on coopetition. Firstly, previous research has lacked to look at coopetitive interactions and their effects. Secondly, research has lacked to empirically investigate negative outcomes of coopetition. Thirdly, research has lacked to examine a two-sided perception of specific dyadic coopetitive relationships and their coopetitive interactions with regard to performance outcomes. This research gaps motivated us to find answers to the following research question:  “How do coopetitive interactions in a dyadic coopetitive relationship affect the performance outcomes of both partners in this relationship?” As such, the purpose of the study is to explore the effect of coopetitive interactions on performance outcomes from a two-sided perspective in a dyadic coopetitive relationship. This further means exploring how coopetitive interactions occur, how such interactions impact performance outcomes, and what factors influence these coopetitive interactions. In order to realize the research purpose consisting of four objectives, we conducted a qualitative study in form of semi-structured in-depth interviews with ten companies from different industries located in Sweden. This enabled us to get one two-sided perspective from two coopeting partners of the same coopetitive relationship and beyond some one-sided perspectives that still provided perceptions for both sides of the coopetitive relationship. The findings and analysis show that the customer plays a central role in the decision for two companies to form a coopetitive relationship and engage in coopetition either out of mutual consent or out of force. Depending on if the customer has an unsought influence or a forcing influence on the decision to engage in coopetition, the interactions can be either cooperation- or competition-dominated. This further influences the degree of tensions, which are created internally, and these tensions influence the degree of reciprocity, which will ultimately affects the respective performance outcomes for both companies in the dyadic coopetitive relationship. Furthermore, we have figured out that these coopetitive interactions can be affected by a combination of managerial capabilities (proactivity, management frameworks) and social capabilities (commitment, trust, transparency, openness). As a result, we derived propositions and developed a conceptual model illustrating this process for validation in further research.

Nonverbal behaviours (NVB) are a fundamental part of the communication process: especially indicative of individuals’ inner states such as attitudes and motivations, NVBs can deeply shape the perceived quality of the interaction. Despite their practical importance and theoretical value, NVBs in intergroup interactions (i.e. intergroup nonverbal behaviours; INVB) are an understudied topic. So far, they have been mainly investigated within interethnic contexts (i.e., White and Black people) and by employing invasive or time-consuming procedures, mainly involving subjective evaluations of video-recorded interactions by external coders. The present work aimed at extending previous literature by exploring NVB and its relationship with prejudice within gay/straight dyadic interactions, a relevant but still partially unexplored intergroup context within this field of research. Differently from ethnicity, sexual orientation is less identifiable and cannot be ascertained from visible markers such as the skin colour, but requires self-disclosure. Further and most importantly, we assessed patterns of NVBs through an RGB-depth camera – the Microsoft Kinect V.2 Sensor – that allowed us to obtain exact quantitative measures of body movements in a fully automatic and continuous way. In doing so, we conducted three experimental studies in which heterosexual participants (total N = 284) were first administered measures of implicit bias and explicit prejudice towards gay men (Study 1 & 3) or lesbians (Study 2), and then asked to interact with a gay (vs. straight; Study 1 & 3) or lesbian (vs. straight) confederate (Study 2), whose sexual orientation was manipulated (Studies 1 & 2) or disclosed (Study 3). A fake Facebook profile, shown to the participant before the interaction, revealed the confederates’ sexual orientation. In all the studies, we considered the pattern of results on two main NVBs, one concerning proxemics (i.e., interpersonal volume between interactants) and the other concerning kinesics (i.e., amount of upper body motions). We selected these NVBs because previous research revealed that they are particularly meaningful for the comprehension of the psychological immediacy between interactants (i.e., interpersonal volume) and their comfort (or discomfort; amount of upper body motions) during a dyadic interaction. Overall, our work revealed a relevant (and unexpected) pattern of findings concerning interpersonal distance. Unlike previous literature, Study 1 revealed that high (vs. low) implicitly biased participants, instead of keeping a larger distance, tended to stay closer to the confederate presented as gay (vs. straight), especially when discussing a topic concerning the intergroup relation (i.e., the situation of the gay community in Italy) than a neutral one. This result was importantly extended in Study 3: high (vs. low) implicitly biased participants that stood closer to the gay (vs. straight) confederate revealed greater cognitive depletion (i.e., lower performance on a Stroop colour-naming task) after the conversation. This latter result suggests that, at least within gay/straight men interactions, interpersonal distance is an NVB that (high implicitly biased) people can control to manage their self-presentation, with consequent greater impairment of their cognitive resources. This main finding was not replicated in Study 2, in which we focused on dyadic interactions between heterosexual participants and lesbian women, by confirming how heterosexual people’s attitudes (and their consequent INVBs) towards this minority group is distinct from those towards gay men and, presumably, people’s gender plays a more predominant role than their implicit or explicit attitudes. Further, across our studies, we found inconsistent or non-significant results concerning the participants’ upper body motion as an outcome variable. A possible explanation for these inconsistent results could be due to the relatively coarse algorithmic index that we used for this INVB. Theoretical and methodological implications of this work are discussed in the General Discussion section, together with its limitations and indications for future research.

This research makes visible the ways power operates in the therapeutic interaction, to support and/or constrain the co-production of children’s knowledge regarding their mental health experiences. Enacting Fairclough’s (2003) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and a Foucauldian conceptualisation of power (1991), a three-phase research program was designed. In phase one, mental health policy and discursive therapy texts from the macro-domain were investigated. In phase two, therapy transcripts drawn from the micro-context were analysed. Finally, in phase three, therapist interviews were also reviewed. The findings show the complexity and contradiction of competing discourses in the therapeutic encounter. This research makes a significant contribution to the child and youth mental health therapy field. Key practice implications point to the importance of a reflexive and deconstructive stance on the part of the therapist, to navigate the complex matrix of power relations in the therapy room.

Comment s'approprie-t-on les règles de métier lors de l'année de stage de titularisation des enseignants débutants ? La conception traditionnelle de l'enseignement donne un rôle crucial aux experts et porte l'attention sur la place des collectifs professionnels dans le développement de l'activité des enseignants en formation. La sociologie a-t-elle à dire ou à redire face à cette approche ? Fruit d'une enquête de terrain sur trois établissements scolaires, nos résultats montrent que la relation dyadique classique, tuteur expert / novice, ne permet pas toujours aux novices de s'approprier les règles de métier. Cette configuration dyadique ne favorise pas le jeu de l'argumentation et de la contre-argumentation permettant via des accords ou des désaccords, l'apprentissage des règles. Ne conviendrait-il pas mieux d'introduire un tiers pour dépasser les freins statutaires qui brident la relation ? C'est ce que nous avons choisi de faire à partir d'une démarche expérimentale qui repose sur la mise en place d'une relation triadique. Le tiers élève le niveau de la contrainte de justification, et les conseils du tuteur ne peuvent plus s'appuyer uniquement sur l'avantage statutaire dont il bénéficiait jusqu'alors. Ce dispositif permet au stagiaire, au risque du conflit, engageant la nécessité d'opération de relativisation et de compromis, d'accéder aux règles enseignées par le tuteur, restées jusque-là inaccessibles
How do the rules are appropriated during the year of preservice teachers? The traditional conception of education gives a crucial role to the experts and focuses on the place of professional collectives in the development of the activity of teachers in training. Does sociology have to say or complain about this approach? The result of our survey based of three schools, show that the classical dyadic relationship expert-tutor / novice does not always allow novices to appropriate the rules of trade. This dyadic configuration does not favor the game of argumentation and counter-argumentation through agreements or disagreements and get difficult the learning of rules. Would not it be better to introduce a third party to overcome the statutory obstacles breaking the relationship. This is what we choose to do from an experimental approach based on the establishment of a triadic relationship. The third party raises the level of the justifying constraint and the tutor's advice can no longer rely solely on the statutory advantage he enjoyed hitherto

Les ondes internes jouent un rôle essentiel dans la dynamique de l'atmosphère et de l'océan. Elles sont entres autres invoquées pour expliquer le mélange irréversible de ce dernier. Dans des géométries particulières, ces ondes sont susceptibles de converger vers des trajectoires limites appelées attracteurs. Dans cette thèse, nous étudions expérimentalement ces attracteurs dans une cuve trapézoïdale. Dans un premier temps, nous nous intéressons à leur bilan énergétique, en mesurant les différentes dissipations ainsi que la puissance injectée par le générateur d'onde. Si cette puissance est suffisante, l'attracteur est susceptible de se déstabiliser par interactions triadiques. Nous quantifions la part de dissipation portée par ces ondes secondaires ainsi générées. La mesure de la puissance injectée en régime linéaire a montré qu'elle est plus importante pour les attracteurs. Cette résonance, observée jusqu'ici sous une excitation monochromatique, est ici observée en étudiant la réponse du système à une impulsion. Un développement théorique est proposé et permet de comparer quantitativement les deux méthodes. Enfin, nous étudions le régime non linéaire des attracteurs, qui présente des spectres temporel et spatial très riches. Après avoir caractérisé le régime non linéaire, nous exhibons deux comportements non linéaires très différents et apportons des pistes d'explication à leur existence
Internal waves are very important to atmospheric and oceanic dynamics. Among others, they might explain the irreversible mixing of the oceans. In particular geometries, these waves can focus on limit cycles called attractors. Firstly, we investigate the energy budget of these attractor by measuring the different dissipative terms and the injected power coming from the waves source. If this power is sufficient, the attractor destibilise throught triadic instabilities. We quantify how much these secondary are important to the global dissipation rate.The measurement of injected power in the linear regime has shown that it is bigger for the attractors. This resonance, which had been observed under a monochromatic excitation, is here study by analysing the response of the system to an impulse. A theoretical development is proposed to compare quantitatively these two methods. Finally, we study the non linear regime of attractors, which present some complex spatial and temporal spectrum. We caracterise this non linear regime and show that two very different non linear beahviors exist. We bring up some explanation to these behaviors

Recently a growing interest has been devoted to the study of the development of early triadic interactive competencies and to the definition and validation of triadic observational paradigms (Nadel, & Tremblay-Leveau, 1999; Tremblay-Leveau, 1999). Among these, the theoretical and methodological framework provided by Fivaz-Depeursinge and Corboz-Warnery (1999) in the study of the quality of family interactions seems to give the chance for a new view on these issues by moving the focus of the research towards the triadic (mother-father-child) interactive system as the main object of investigation. Family interactions is thus considered as a primary developmental context for child socio-emotional development as well as a privileged unit of observation of parenting skills. Taking a theoretical and methodological triadic and systemic approach to the study of mother-father-child interactive competences during infancy and the preschool age draws interest to the role of individual, dyadic and contextual-relational factors that might influence their developmental trajectories. In this perspective the aims of the research were: a) to analyze the development of triadic interactions within the family system from infant’s first months of life to the preschool age; b) to investigate the relationship between individual characteristics of parents and the child (gender, parents’ affective-relational history and mothers’ postnatal depressive symptoms), contextual sources of stress and support (the quality of the marital and coparental relationship, the degree of father involvement) and the development of socio-emotional competencies expressed during triadic mother-father-child interactions and children’s outcomes at the preschool age. 31 non-referred primiparous families participated in the study and were recruited at child-birth classes. All the families have been seen during pregnancy, at the 4th , 9th , 12th and at the preschool age. Measures included: self-report (Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Questionnaire on Father Involvement, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale) and parents’ report (Symptom Checklist modified) questionnaires, interviews (Adult Attachment Interview) and observational procedures (Prenatal and Postnatal Lausanne Trilogue Play). Results showed a partial stability of the quality of family triadic interactions from pregnancy to the child’s preschool age: indeed only the overall quality of triadic interactions assessed at the baby's 9th month of life correlates significantly with that assessed at the child's preschool age. Moreover, a significant increase in the quality of mother-father-child interactions during this period was observed. Triadic interactive competences at the preschool age were predicted by the degree of father involvement at the infant’s 4 months and mothers’ inferred experiences of involvement and preoccupation for their parents’ well-being during childhood, both exerting a positive effect on the later quality of mother-father-child interactions. Finally fathers’ perception of marital adjustment was found significantly associated to children’s sleeping difficulties, mothers’ and fathers’ marital adjustment and father involvement were found significantly and negatively related to children’s regulation problems whereas mothers’ experiences of neglect during childhood were positively associated with children’s outcomes in this area. Moreover, marital adjustment reported by mother at the infant’s 4 and 12 months and mothers’ experiences of neglect during childhood were found predictive of children’s behavioural problems at the preschool age. Summarizing these data, different pathways of family interactive and socio-emotional skills can be observed from baby's birth to the child's preschool age: while during the first year of infant's life, the overall and specific dimensions of the quality of triadic interactions show no stability and, at the same time a significant discontinuity between the 4th and the 9th month, the succeeding period presents an higher stability and continuity in the family triadic competences. These results seem to stress the importance of early interactions, in this case within the mother-father-child triad, in shaping later interactions and relationships as well as the possibility to look at the first year of the baby's life as a developmental window for the family interactive system, during which family triads can significantly improve their interactive competences. Strong cross-sectional and longitudinal association have been also revealed between the overall quality of triadic competencies and the degree of father involvement: these observations seem to provide a first evidence of the close relationship between the two constructs during early childhood and their mutual interdependence in fostering a relational context functional to the well-being and the development of the child. Moreover, mothers’ early experiences of involvement and preoccupation for their parents well-being seem to foster later quality of family interactions. On the other hand, children’s psycho-functional outcomes at the preschool age seem to be predicted mainly by marital adjustment, father involvement and mothers’ experiences of neglect: the first two, predicting more favourable outcomes for children, the latter exerting a negative influence on children’s regulation and behavioural problems.
Recentemente si è assistito ad un interesse crescente verso lo studio dello sviluppo delle competenze interattive precoci manifestate dal bambino in contesti interattivi che prevedevano la compresenza di due partner interattivi che ha portato alla definizione e validazione di paradigmi osservativi triadici (Nadel, Tremblay-Leveau, 1999; Tremblay-Leveau, 1999). Tra questi, la cornice teorica e metodologica proposta da Fivaz-Depeursinge and Corboz-Warnery (1999) per lo studio della qualità delle interazioni familiari sembra poter fornire una nuova prospettiva spostando il focus della ricerca verso il sistema interattivo triadico costituito dalla triade madre-padre-bambino, considerate come oggetto di indagine privilegiato. Le interazioni familiari sono quindi considerate come un contesto evolutivo primario per lo sviluppo socio-emotivo del bambino e un’unità di osservazione privilegiata delle competenze genitoriali. L’assunzione di una prospettiva teorica e metodologica di tipo triadico-sistemico nello studio delle competenze interattive del sistema madre-padre-bambino nel corso dell’infanzia e dell’età prescolare promuove l’interesse verso il ruolo di fattori individuali, relazionali e contestuali che ne possono influenzare le traiettorie evolutive. In questa prospettiva gli obiettivi dello studio sono stati di: a) analizzare lo sviluppo delle interazioni triadiche familiari nel periodo che va dai primi mesi di vita del bambino all’età prescolare; b) di analizzare la relazione tra caratteristiche individuali dei genitori (in particolare la storia affettivo-relazionale e la presenza nelle madri di sintomatologia depressiva nel periodo postnatale) e del bambino (il genere), e fonti di stress o supporto per il sistema famiglia (la qualità della relazione coniugale e cogenitoriale e il coinvolgimento paterno nella cura del bambino) sullo sviluppo delle competenze interattive triadiche e gli esiti psicofunzionali del bambino in età prescolare. Alla ricerca hanno partecipato 31 famiglie appartenenti ad una popolazione non clinica, reclutati presso i corsi di preparazione al parto. Lo studio ha previsto un disegno longitudinale in 5 tappe per cui tutte le famiglie sono state incontrate al 7° mese di gravidanza, al 4°, 9° e 12° mese di vita del bambino e durante l’età prescolare (3-4 anni del bambino). Gli strumenti utilizzati includono: questionari self-report (Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Questionario sul Coinvolgimento Paterno, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale) e parents’ report (Symptom Checklist adattata), interviste (Adult Attachment Interview) e procedure osservative (Lausanne Trilogue Play Prenatale e Postnatale). I risultati hanno evidenziato: a) una parziale stabilità delle competenze interattive triadiche familiari dalla gravidanza all’età prescolare: infatti solo la qualità globale delle interazioni triadiche al 9° mese del bambino è risultata correlare significativamente e positivamente con quella valutata in età prescolare. Inoltre si è rilevato un incremento significativo della qualità delle interazioni madre-padre-bambino tra il 4° e il 9° mese e una progressiva stabilizzazione tra il 9° mese e l’età prescolare che coinvolge la maggior parte delle sottostanti competenze considerate nel sistema di codifica del LTP. b) I fattori risultati predittivi delle competenze interattive triadiche osservate in età prescolare sono il coinvolgimento paterno al 4° mese del bambino e le esperienze di coinvolgimento e preoccupazione per il benessere dei propri genitori nell’infanzia riportato dalle madri: entrambi questi fattori sono risultati associati in modo positivo alla successiva qualità delle interazioni madre-padre-bambino. c) Per quanto riguarda gli esiti psicofunzionali del bambino in età prescolare, la qualità della relazione di coppia percepita dai padri è risultata negativamente associata alla difficoltà dei bambini nell’addormentamento; anche per quanto riguarda le difficoltà nella regolazione, si sono rilevate associazioni significative negative con l’adattamento coniugale percepito dai genitori nel tempo e il coinvolgimento paterno al 9° mese e positive con le esperienze di neglect nella relazione con i genitori nell’infanzia riportati dalle madri. Infine, l’adattamento coniugale riportato dalle madri al 4° e 12° mese del bambino e le esperienze di neglect nella relazione con i genitori nell’infanzia riportati dalle madri sono risultati predittivi dei problemi comportamentali dei bambini nella tappa prescolare. In sintesi quindi si sono rilevati percorsi evolutivi differenti delle competenze socio-emotive ed interattive familiari nel periodo che va dai primi mesi di vita del bambino all’età prescolare: in particolare, mentre nel primo anno di vita del bambino la qualità complessiva delle interazioni familiari e le sue sottostanti e specifiche competenze sembrano caratterizzate da instabilità e da una significativa discontinuità tra il 4° e il 9° mese, il periodo successivo, dal 9° mese all’età prescolare presenta invece una maggiore stabilità e continuità di tali competenze. In linea con le ricerche condotte secondo paradigmi diadici, questi risultati sembrano sottolineare l’importanza delle interazioni precoci, in questo caso quelle co-costruite dalla triade madre-padre-bambino, nel formare le interazioni e relazioni successive e parallelamente, sembrano evidenziare la possibilità di guardare al primo anno del bambino come una finestra evolutiva per il sistema interattivo familiare, durante il quale la triade familiare può migliorare ed aumentare le proprie competenze interattive secondo un percorso non deterministico. Le significative associazioni trasversali e longitudinali tra il coinvolgimento paterno e le competenze interattive triadiche sembrano confermare la stretta relazione tra questi due aspetti durante la prima infanzia e la loro reciproca interdipendenza nel promuovere un contesto relazionale funzionale al benessere e allo sviluppo del bambino. Inoltre le precoci esperienze di coinvolgimento e preoccupazione per il benessere delle figure di attaccamento riportate dalle madri sono risultate a loro volta favorire la qualità degli scambi interattivi triadici osservati all’età prescolare del bambino. Viceversa, non si sono rilevate associazioni significative tra la qualità delle interazioni familiari e gli esiti psicofunzionali del bambino, che sembrano essere influenzati principalmente dall’adattamento coniugale, dal coinvolgimento paterno e dalle esperienze materne di neglect: i primi due sembrano predire esiti evolutivi più favorevoli mentre il terzo aspetto sembra esercitare un effetto negativo in particolare sulle difficoltà di regolazione e i problemi comportamentali del bambino in età prescolare.

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder whose onset emerges at an increasingly early age and whose prognosis, even among adolescents, can be grave. Current scientific literature and practice guidelines on the treatment of adolescent patients with anorexia point to the key role that is played by parents and family in influencing the therapeutic possibilities and the outcomes of young patients. The aims of the thesis are to explore the relational and emotional dynamics in families of adolescents with anorexia that may influence the treatment possibilities and the outcome of the young patients. Three different research studies are presented in the thesis, all examined families of adolescents with restricting type anorexia nervosa, and explored aspects of family relations, relating in particular to the internalized parental bonding, emotion regulation and triadic mother-father-daughter interactions. The first study aims to identify any specific pattern of parental bonding and address the intergenerational transmission of these patterns in families of newly diagnosed adolescents with restricting type anorexia. The second study instead deals with emotion regulation in families with an adolescent with anorexia, exploring alexithymia in the daughter, mother and father based on clinical versus self- assessment. Whereas in the third study, a direct observational procedure based on a videotaped play section was used to explore triadic interactions. The results of the studies seem to suggest that both in the research, as well as in treatment of patients with anorexia nervosa, attention needs to be shifted from the exclusive mother-daughter relation to the involvement of the father, of the parental couple and of the family as a whole. Since family functioning is well established as a maintaining factor of anorexia nervosa or vice versa as a facilitating factor in the therapeutic process, studying the family relations may not only help clinicians to select the most suitable treatment for each patient and each family but also to predict the possibility of establishing a therapeutic alliance with the family and thus to improve the possibility of reaching a good outcome.
L’anoressia, patologia eclatante nelle sue manifestazioni eppure sfuggente, paradossale ed inquietante, tentativo di redenzione e rischio di morte allo stesso tempo, pone ai suoi clinici e ai suoi teorici questioni di grande complessità, che si riflettono nella varietà delle teorie differenti e contraddittorie formulate nei diversi ambiti. Patologia di confine fra il somatico e lo psichico, l’anoressia ha da sempre suscitato il dibattito fra i sostenitori delle origini psicologiche della malattia e coloro che invece parteggiano per cause primariamente organiche. L’anoressia nervosa, la più studiata e la più nota fra le forme di disturbo del comportamento alimentare, conserva anche nell'età evolutiva aspetti di prognosi molto grave con un’elevata percentuale di esito mortale. Nonostante l’età di esordio dell’anoressia nervosa sia sempre più precoce e la prevalenza del disturbo in età evolutiva in crescita, sono ancora carenti gli studi in letteratura che riguardano specificamente questa fascia d’età. Eppure ben il 40% dei nuovi casi di anoressia esordisce proprio fra i 15 e i 19 anni, età in cui si rilevano tuttavia anche i più elevati tassi di guarigione. Nelle prime fasi del suo esordio, che avviene di solito in adolescenza, appare perciò cruciale predisporre una presa in carico precoce e tempestiva di questo disturbo dagli esiti potenzialmente molto gravi. L’insorgenza del disturbo, la cui eziologia appare complessa e multifattoriale, sembra precipitata dall'interazione di diversi fattori: biologici, psicologici, ambientali, culturali e sociali. Se i dati riguardanti le componenti genetiche e neurobiologiche sembrano offrire per ora limitate prospettive per un reale progresso nel trattamento di questa complessa patologia, più interessanti sul piano clinico e terapeutico appaiono attualmente i dati della letteratura che indicano il ruolo cardine delle componenti famigliari, sia per quanto riguarda l’evoluzione del disturbo sia per quanto riguarda gli indirizzi terapeutici valutati come più efficaci. Se è noto che i trattamenti familiari si sono dimostrati molto efficaci nel trattamento di questa psicopatologia, i meccanismi di funzionamento di queste terapie e le peculiari dinamiche familiari cui indirizzare più fruttuosamente il trattamento restano campi potenzialmente fertili, da esplorare per la ricerca. E’ convinzione generale che il complesso problema della eziopatogenesi rimanga al di fuori degli obiettivi degli studi volti ad analizzare e fotografare le dinamiche familiari presenti in un determinato momento nelle famiglie delle pazienti con anoressia. Tuttavia - obiettivo forse prioritario rispetto ad ogni altro - cogliere e descrivere il funzionamento delle pazienti con anoressia all'interno delle loro famiglie può essere utile e forse indispensabile per stabilire quali siano le misure terapeutiche più valide da attivare in ogni specifico caso. Una presa in carico tempestiva ed efficace di questa grave psicopatologia, potenzialmente mortale, può essere fondamentale e la ricerca in questo campo può arricchire in maniera sostanziale il ventaglio degli interventi disponibili e l’efficacia della loro applicazione alle diverse situazioni cliniche. Questa tesi si propone di esplorare all'interno delle famiglie di adolescenti con anoressia alcune dinamiche relazionali ed emotive che potrebbero influenzare il decorso e le possibilità di cura delle giovani pazienti. Nella tesi sono presentati tre diversi lavori di ricerca, svolti tutti all'interno di famiglie di adolescenti con anoressia nervosa di tipo restrittivo, volti ad esaminare aspetti delle relazioni familiari, relativi in particolare ai legami genitoriali interiorizzati, alla regolazione emotiva e alle interazioni madre-padre-figlia. Il primo studio esamina il legame genitoriale percepito dalle adolescenti con anoressia e dei loro genitori, nell'intento di cogliere la possibile continuità e influenza degli stili di attaccamento tra le diverse generazioni (genitori verso i propri genitori – figli verso i genitori) all'interno delle famiglie dei pazienti. La ricerca sulla potenziale trasmissione trasgenerazionale dei legami parentali e dell’attaccamento è infatti ancora molto limitata e non vi è inoltre alcuna evidenza che riguardi le famiglie di pazienti adolescenti. Questo studio controllato ha visto la partecipazione di 168 partecipanti, adolescenti e genitori, cui è stato somministrato il Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) per la valutazione dei legami genitoriali interiorizzati. L’analisi dei legami parentali dei membri della famiglia, svolta a livello latente (Latent Class Analysis), ha permesso di evidenziare alcune peculiarità a livello familiare. Se da una parte i risultati dello studio confermano che gli adolescenti con anoressia restrittiva riferiscono di percepire positivamente il rapporto con i propri genitori, dall'altra i genitori dei pazienti mostrano di ricordare i propri genitori come apprensivi e autoritari ma non particolarmente affettuosi. Tali specificità del legame parentale ricordate dai genitori dei pazienti rispetto ai propri genitori aprono la questione di quanto i modelli di attaccamento genitoriali possano influenzare la relazione stessa con i figli e dunque essere possibili target di un intervento volto a modificare in senso migliorativo le relazioni all'interno delle famiglie dei pazienti con anoressia. Ulteriori ricerche sui modelli di attaccamento nelle famiglie di pazienti con anoressia potrebbero chiarire l’eventuale ruolo di questi modelli come fattore di vulnerabilità rispetto ai disturbi alimentari e soprattutto la loro influenza rispetto al decorso della malattia. D’altra parte il disegno trasversale dello studio non permette di chiarire se le percezioni genitoriali negative rispetto al legame con i propri genitori preesistano alla malattia della figlia o se invece siano conseguenza di quest’ultima. Le relazioni in atto e le esperienze successive possono infatti influenzare i ricordi e le rappresentazioni del passato e ciò specialmente nel caso di esperienze fortemente traumatiche come può essere per i genitori delle pazienti la diagnosi di anoressia delle figlie con il concreto pericolo di vita che spesso essa comporta. Questa considerazione rende conto dell’importanza di studiare le percezioni interne dei genitori e delle figlie, superando la sterile e probabilmente insolubile controversia su quali siano le cause e quali le conseguenze. Dal punto di vista della cura considerare la reciproca e vicendevole connessione tra rappresentazioni interne (per esempio le rappresentazioni del legame con i genitori del passato) e le relazioni e le interazioni attuali offre infatti due importanti punti di accesso al lavoro terapeutico con le famiglie: se da una parte il lavoro sulle rappresentazioni può favorire la modificazione dei comportamenti genitoriali e delle interazioni reali fra genitori e figlie malate, dall'altro è altrettanto vero che lavorare direttamente sulle relazioni concrete in corso fra genitori e figli può giungere a modificare anche le rappresentazioni interne di questi rapporti. Da qui l’interesse di studiare non solo le rappresentazioni interne dei legami familiari ma anche le interazioni in atto fra genitori e figlie (terzo studio di questa tesi) e la regolazione delle emozioni all'interno della famiglia (secondo studio), aspetto quest'ultimo che potrebbe collegare le due dimensioni del mondo interno delle rappresentazioni e della realtà esterna delle interazioni. Le rappresentazioni di sé e dell’altro (modelli operativi interni di attaccamento) sono infatti strettamente connesse alla regolazione, più o meno funzionale, degli affetti ed ai comportamenti parentali messi in atto nel concreto. Il secondo studio, presentato nella tesi, si occupa quindi di esaminare le potenziali peculiarità del funzionamento psichico dei membri delle famiglie di pazienti con anoressia in relazione alla qualità della percezione e del contatto col mondo emozionale interno, utilizzando il costrutto di alessitimia. Molti studi sull'anoressia nervosa si sono concentrati sulla regolazione emotiva, ed in particolare sull'alessitimia, a livello individuale, mentre ci sono solo pochi e contrastanti dati sull'alessitimia a livello famigliare, nonostante le evidenze più recenti segnalino l'importanza delle dinamiche familiari rispetto all'evoluzione del disturbo anoressico, soprattutto nei pazienti adolescenti. Si è ritenuto opportuno in questo secondo studio non limitarsi all'indagine delle percezioni interne di pazienti e genitori rispetto alla qualità dei propri vissuti emotivi attraverso questionari autovalutativi, ricorrendo in aggiunta ad una valutazione clinica svolta attraverso un’intervista strutturata specificamente studiata per valutare l’alessitimia. L'alessitimia rappresenta infatti uno specifico deficit nella regolazione degli affetti che implica proprio una difficoltà nell'identificare, elaborare e descrivere verbalmente le emozioni, che si accompagna di solito ad un limitata capacità immaginativa e fantasmatica. Lo scopo dello studio è stato dunque quello di valutare l’alessitimia nelle pazienti adolescenti anoressiche e nei loro genitori, utilizzando una misurazione multi-metodo al fine di acquisire una conoscenza più diretta e approfondita del problema. A 46 partecipanti, pazienti adolescenti con anoressia e genitori, è stata proposto il noto questionario self-report Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), accanto all’intervista strutturata Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia (TSIA), che rappresenta la prima intervista clinica strutturata completa per la valutazione dell’alessitimia. L’uso del modello a tratti latenti di Rasch ha permesso di confrontare la sensibilità dei due diversi strumenti, evidenziando una significativa discordanza fra i due: l’intervista clinica infatti permette di riscontrare un grado di alessitimia maggiore sia nei genitori sia nelle figlie con anoressia. Inoltre all’interno delle famiglie ed in particolare della coppia genitoriale è emerso un significativo divario nei livelli di alessitimia. Grazie all’utilizzo dell’intervista clinica, che si è dimostrata in grado di minimizzare le tendenze alla negazione, si è rilevato che i padri delle pazienti si trovano molto più in difficoltà nell’identificare, elaborare e descrivere verbalmente i propri sentimenti rispetto alle madri. Queste ultime si collocano piuttosto su una polarità opposta di grande recettività e capacità di comprendere e analizzare i sentimenti, che potrebbero all’opposto coinvolgerle eccessivamente fino talvolta a travolgerle. I risultati aprono la via a dare maggior spazio, accanto alle caratteristiche individuali di pazienti e genitori, anche all’impatto del funzionamento emotivo familiare (per esempio le antitetiche modalità materne e paterne di gestire e vivere le emozioni all’interno della coppia genitoriale), come aspetto fondamentale rispetto alla possibilità di stabilire un’alleanza terapeutica con paziente e genitori e dunque influenzare in senso positivo l’outcome. Gli studi più recenti e le linee guida per il trattamento di pazienti adolescenti con anoressia nervosa concordano infatti nel sottolineare il ruolo chiave svolto dai genitori per quanto riguarda gli esiti dei trattamenti per le giovani pazienti. Tuttavia il funzionamento familiare è stato per ora studiato quasi esclusivamente con metodi autovalutativi. Eppure, come è emerso nel secondo studio presentato, proprio nelle difficili circostanze vissute dalle famiglie che si trovano ad affrontare la malattia, spesso grave e pericolosa, della figlia che soffre di anoressia, le valutazioni cliniche e i metodi osservativi possono aiutare a riconoscere in maggior misura aspetti delle relazioni familiari e del funzionamento psichico dei membri della famiglia, che essi stessi non sono sempre in grado di cogliere appieno. Il terzo studio, che compone questa tesi, mira infatti ad indagare le interazioni triadiche all’interno delle famiglie di adolescenti con anoressia nervosa attraverso una procedura osservativa semistandardizzata. 120 genitori e figlie adolescenti, consecutivamente giunti all’attenzione di servizi neuropsichiatrici per l’età evolutiva, hanno partecipato allo studio e hanno preso parte ad una seduta di gioco videoregistrata, secondo la procedura del Lausanne Trilogue Play (LTP). In questa innovativa applicazione alle famiglie di pazienti con anoressia restrittiva, il Lausanne Trilogue Play segnala alcune peculiarità nell’interazione, che differenziano queste ultime famiglie da un altro gruppo di famiglie con figlie diagnosticate come sofferenti di disturbi psichiatrici differenti (disturbi dell’umore di tipo depressivo o disturbi d’ansia), le quali hanno preso parte allo studio come gruppo di controllo con altra psicopatologia. I risultati mostrano che nelle famiglie delle pazienti con anoressia i ruoli all’interno della triade madre-padre-figlia non sono sempre chiari e definiti e ciò soprattutto quando è richiesta una rilevante capacità di triangolazione e di coinvolgimento di tutti e tre i protagonisti nell’interazione. Il rapporto sembra infatti più spesso mantenuto a livello diadico attraverso la creazione di coalizioni familiari. I genitori mostrano una notevole difficoltà a ritagliarsi uno spazio relazionale di coppia da cui la figlia malata possa essere momentaneamente esclusa. Il padre è posto o tende a porsi lui stesso ai margini dell’interazione fra madre e figlia, rimanendone spesso escluso. Padre e figlia si collocano inoltre su una polarità di maggior autocontrollo e distacco emotivo, aliena alle madri che mostrano invece una maggiore reattività e un più marcato coinvolgimento. Il presente lavoro, essendo controllato, fornisce indicazioni in linea con la medicina dell'evidenza, anche se con un grado di evidenza inferiore a quello fornito da un trial controllato randomizzato. Ad esempio si dimostra la presenza di caratteristiche di funzionamento famigliare in cui il padre acquisisce un ruolo di primo piano, suggerendo dunque l’opportunità di spostare l'attenzione dall’indagine dalla relazione esclusiva madre-figlia al coinvolgimento del padre, della coppia dei genitori e della famiglia nel suo complesso. Dal momento che proprio il funzionamento familiare può rivelarsi un fattore di rischio o viceversa un fattore di facilitazione del processo di cura, l’utilizzo della metodica LTP può consentire l’osservazione diretta delle dinamiche familiari, aprendo la via ad un eventuale lavoro terapeutico mirato su queste ultime. Lavorare sugli elementi disfunzionali delle interazioni attuali, che siano acquisiti dopo l’esordio della malattia oppure antecedenti, può infatti mobilizzare le relazioni familiari, favorendo un outcome positivo per la giovane paziente. Con la consapevolezza del rischio di operare un’indebita trasformazione dei risultati dell’osservazione diretta in dati di fatto assoluti, interpretati poi a vantaggio di letture eziopatogenetiche dell’anoressia, diviene necessario sottolineare che in un campo di studio così complesso e articolato, come quello della psicopatologia dell’anoressia nervosa e delle relazioni familiari, la ricerca scientifica, e così i dati presentati in questa tesi, non possono che offrire risultati sempre limitati e destinati a ulteriori arricchimenti, conferme e disconferme. I tre studi presentati in questa tesi rappresentano un tentativo di cogliere e analizzare, con metodologie diverse e complementari, alcuni aspetti del funzionamento familiare pressochè inesplorati per quanto riguarda i pazienti adolescenti. I tre studi convergono nell’indicare che la coppia genitoriale e l’ambiente famigliare nel suo complesso possono avere un ruolo chiave rispetto alle possibilità evolutive e di cura delle giovani con anoressia. Non a caso il trattamento familiare, trattamento di prima linea raccomandato dalle linee guida internazionali, è particolarmente efficace proprio per le pazienti nella fascia di età adolescenziale e con recente esordio di malattia. Una miglior comprensione delle dinamiche familiari può essere prioritaria proprio per la cura di pazienti che non hanno ancora concluso il proprio sviluppo, anche dal punto di vista psicologico, e che vivono inoltre ancora all’interno della propria famiglia di origine. In adolescenza infatti il gioco di rimandi fra realtà esterna e realtà interna, fra genitori reali e imago parentali interiorizzate è ancora fluido e aperto. Il processo di soggettivazione stesso, l’evolversi del mondo interno dell’adolescente si gioca in questa complessa articolazione di relazioni ed emozioni, attuali e interiorizzate (Jeammet, 2010).

Dissertação de Mestrado em Evolução e Biologia Humanas apresentada ao Departamento de Ciências da Vida da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra.
Life in groups often entails conflicts. It is believed that natural selection acted on gregarious animals to evolve mechanisms for conflict resolution. Most of these have been demonstrated in the living primates (prossimians, monkeys and apes). Since its first study over 30 years ago, conflict resolution strategies have developed into more complex descriptions with several possible proximate functions proposed. What we now know as post-conflict strategies include reconciliation (dyadic post-conflict affiliation) and consolation (triadic post-conflict affiliation). Presently there are four hypotheses on the proximal functions of reconciliation (the valuable-relationship hypothesis, the uncertainty-reduction hypothesis, the integrated hypothesis and the benign intent hypothesis) and three hypotheses regarding also the proximal functions of consolation (the consolation hypothesis, the self-protection hypothesis and the relationship repair hypothesis). Most predictions regarding triadic affiliations seem to fall on two categories: victim-oriented motivations for affiliation (or empathic) and bystander-oriented motivations for affiliation (or selfish). Taking this perspective, an empathy-based integrated hypothesis of triadic affiliations is propose together with an alternative selfish-based integrated hypothesis of triadic affiliations for further studies. Both strategies have, on some degree, been demonstrated in the primate literature. For these predictions this research took chimpanzees and bonobos as its subjects. While chimpanzees have been well studied, bonobos remain largely unexplored. Triadic affiliations are a complex phenomenon and its various proximate functions have not been fully explored. A total of 102 PC-MC pairs were observed in the chimpanzees and 20 PC-MC pairs in the bonobos. Some of the results tested showed an inverse tendency contrary to the predictions made. The chimpanzees had a group CCT=22,3% and group TCT=53,3% while the bonobos had a group CCT=21,4% and group TCT=43,7%. Direct comparisons among chimpanzees and bonobos may provide a powerful method of testing phylogenetic hypotheses. Since we humans share so much with these African apes it is important to investigate what sets them apart, as a species, from each other and ultimately what sets us apart from them.
Viver em grupos, muitas vezes, envolve, conflitos. Acredita-se que a selecção natural actuou em animais gregários de forma a que evoluíssem mecanismos para a resolução de conflitos. Muitos destes têm sido confirmados nos primatas actuais (prossímios, antropóides e grandes símios). Desde o seu primeiro estudo há mais de 30 anos, as estratégias de resolução de conflitos foram desenvolvendo descrições mais complexas com várias possíveis funções proximais propostas. O que presentemente conhecemos como estratégias pós-conflito, afiliações diádicas pós-conflito (reuniões entre dois oponentes) e afiliações triádicas pós-conflito (interacções amigáveis entre a vítima e um espectador). Actualmente, conhecem-se quatro hipóteses principais acerca da função proximal das afiliações diádicas (hipótese da relação valiosa, hipótese da redução de incerteza, hipótese integrada e a hipótese das intenções benignas) e três hipóteses principais das afiliações triádicas (hipótese da consolação, hipótese da autoprotecção, e a hipótese do restauro da relação). A maioria das previsões respeitando as afiliações triádicas aparentam enquadrar-se em duas categorias: motivações para afiliação orientadas para a vítima (ou afiliação empática), e motivações para afiliação orientadas para o espectador (ou afiliação egoísta). Utilizando esta perspectiva, uma organização teórica foi proposta de forma a testar futuramente, uma hipótese integrada empática e a hipótese integrada egoísta. Ambas as estratégias foram, a determinado nível, demonstradas na literatura primatológica. Para esta previsão este estudo teve como sujeitos chimpanzés e bonobos. Enquanto que os chimpanzés têm sido bastante estudados, os bonobos permanecem maioritariamente por explorar. As afiliações triádicas são um fenómeno complexo e as suas várias funções proximais não foram completamente examinadas. Alguns dos resultados obtidos mostraram-se contrários a previsões feitas. Um total de 102 pares de PC-MC foi obtido para os chimpanzés e 20 pares de PC-MC para os bonobos. Os chimpanzés exibiram um CCT grupal = 22,3% e um TCT grupal = 53,3% enquanto que os bonobos exibiram um CCT grupal = 21,4% e um TCT grupal = 43,7%. Comparações directas entre chimpanzés e bonobos podem promover um método vigoroso de teste de hipóteses filogenéticas. Uma vez que nós humanos partilhamos tanto com estes grandes símios africanos, é essencial averiguar o que os distingue, como espécie, uns dos outros e em último caso, o que nos distingue a nós deles.

Children with severe disabilities have limited ability to communicate with their environment. Understanding how and to what extent these children connect with the environment can be an insurmountable challenge for their caregivers. In this thesis we investigated the degree of interactions between a pair of individuals using their physiological signals. It was hypothesized that stronger social interaction induces greater physiological synchrony. We introduced a multivariate index of synchrony to relate various physiological correlations into the degree of social interaction. 18 able-bodied individuals participated in a study to measure the extent of synchrony between two intimate individuals vs. two strangers during conversation. Stronger correlation was detected for intimate participants in comparison with the strangers. The physiological alignment also increased as the dyad interacted more. A generalization of our method can be used for the study of children with disabilities to understand the degree of their non-verbal interaction with their social environment.

Entry into elementary school marks the beginning of a crucial shift in the amount and quality of time that children spend with their peers (Coie & Dodge, 1988). For many 5-year olds, kindergarten provides the opportunity to encounter their first stable peer group. It is in the context of these interactions that children practice essential social skills, as well as develop a capacity to interact with others. For various reasons, however, many children have difficulty gaining acceptance into fundamental peer groups. For these children, the opportunities for peer interactions present in the early school years are limited and often characterized by a high degree of aggressive affect (Coie & Dodge, 1988). Although previous research has reliably identified the individual affective states characteristic of rejected children during a typical peer interaction (Newcomb, Bukowski, & Pattee, 1993), it should be kept in mind that these expressions are embedded within a larger peer context, which plays an important role in how these dynamic processes unfold in real time (O’Connell, Pepler, & Craig, 1999). The purpose of the present study was to explore the application of a dynamic systems (DS) technique, state space grids (SSG), to the study of kindergarten peer processes and their impact on long-term psychopathology. Participants were 267 kindergarten children from a single school serving a predominantly low socioeconomic neighbourhood. In order to examine the social dynamics of interacting triads, moment-to-moment changes in affect were documented. Parent and teacher ratings of child conduct problems were also obtained at four measurement points. Consistent with previous research, both controversial and rejected children were more likely to express aggressive affect. Differential effects across sociometric groups were also replicated for both externalizing and internalizing ratings, where rejected children were found to have significantly higher scores. Extending upon past research, the expression of particular triadic affective states were found to differ significantly across sociometric groups. Furthermore, specific triadic affective states were found to be related to the developmental trajectories of clinical outcomes. Overall, results of the present study extend previous findings on the expression of individual affective states through the application of DS principles and methodology.
Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-20 22:48:51.92

abstract: Natural photosynthesis dedicates specific proteins to achieve the modular division of the essential roles of solar energy harvesting, charge separation and carrier transport within natural photosynthesis. The modern understanding of the fundamental photochemistry by which natural photosynthesis operates is well advanced and solution state mimics of the key photochemical processes have been reported previously. All of the early events in natural photosynthesis responsible for the conversion of solar energy to electric potential energy occur within proteins and phospholipid membranes that act as scaffolds for arranging the active chromophores. Accordingly, for creating artificial photovoltaic (PV) systems, scaffolds are required to imbue structure to the systems. An approach to incorporating modular design into solid-state organic mimics of the natural system is presented together with how conductive scaffolds can be utilized in organic PV systems. To support the chromophore arrays present within this design and to extract separated charges from within the structure, linear pyrazine-containing molecular ribbons were chosen as candidates for forming conductive linear scaffolds that could be functionalized orthogonally to the linear axis. A series of donor-wire-acceptor (D-W-A) compounds employing porphyrins as the donors and a C60 fullerene adduct as the acceptors have been synthesized for studying the ability of the pyrazine-containing hetero-aromatic wires to mediate photoinduced electron transfer between the porphyrin donor and fullerene acceptor. Appropriate substitutions were made and the necessary model compounds useful for dissecting the complex photochemistry that the series is expected to display were also synthesized. A dye was synthesized using a pyrazine-containing heteroaromatic spacer that features two porphyrin chromophores. The dye dramatically outperforms the control dye featuring the same porphyrin and a simple benzoic acid linker. A novel, highly soluble 6+kDa extended phthalocyanine was also synthesized and exhibits absorption out to 900nm. The extensive functionalization of the extended phthalocyanine core with dodecyl groups enabled purification and characterization of an otherwise insoluble entity. Finally, in the interest of incorporating modular design into plastic solar cells, a series of porphyrin-containing monomers have been synthesized that are intended to form dyadic and triadic molecular-heterojunction polymers with dedicated hole and electron transport pathways during electrochemical polymerization.
Dissertation/Thesis
Ph.D. Chemistry 2013

The purpose of this thesis was to examine parent-adolescent relationships during the transition to high school. Fourteen parent-adolescent dyads from two Canadian cities completed the study. At pre-transition (Time 1) and post-transition (Time 2) to high school, each dyad was video-recorded engaging in a conversation together about various topics related to the school transition. Content analysis was conducted to explore parents’ and adolescents’ pre-transition anticipations of how their relationship would be in high school. State space grid analysis was used to investigate whether there were changes in the structure or emotional content of parent-adolescent dyadic interactions between pre-transition and post-transition to high school. Results showed that parents and adolescents expressed relationship anticipations of stability, change, or uncertainty. Additionally, no statistically significant differences were found in the structure or emotional content of parent-adolescent interactions, suggesting that the high school transition does not appear to disrupt how parents and adolescents interact together.
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS)

abstract: Parents fulfill a pivotal role in early childhood development of social and communication skills. In children with autism, the development of these skills can be delayed. Applied behavioral analysis (ABA) techniques have been created to aid in skill acquisition. Among these, pivotal response treatment (PRT) has been empirically shown to foster improvements. Research into PRT implementation has also shown that parents can be trained to be effective interventionists for their children. The current difficulty in PRT training is how to disseminate training to parents who need it, and how to support and motivate practitioners after training. Evaluation of the parents’ fidelity to implementation is often undertaken using video probes that depict the dyadic interaction occurring between the parent and the child during PRT sessions. These videos are time consuming for clinicians to process, and often result in only minimal feedback for the parents. Current trends in technology could be utilized to alleviate the manual cost of extracting data from the videos, affording greater opportunities for providing clinician created feedback as well as automated assessments. The naturalistic context of the video probes along with the dependence on ubiquitous recording devices creates a difficult scenario for classification tasks. The domain of the PRT video probes can be expected to have high levels of both aleatory and epistemic uncertainty. Addressing these challenges requires examination of the multimodal data along with implementation and evaluation of classification algorithms. This is explored through the use of a new dataset of PRT videos. The relationship between the parent and the clinician is important. The clinician can provide support and help build self-efficacy in addition to providing knowledge and modeling of treatment procedures. Facilitating this relationship along with automated feedback not only provides the opportunity to present expert feedback to the parent, but also allows the clinician to aid in personalizing the classification models. By utilizing a human-in-the-loop framework, clinicians can aid in addressing the uncertainty in the classification models by providing additional labeled samples. This will allow the system to improve classification and provides a person-centered approach to extracting multimodal data from PRT video probes.
Dissertation/Thesis
Doctoral Dissertation Computer Science 2019

This thesis describes a PhD project is based on the notion that we live our whole life dipped into an interactive social environment where we observe and act together with others and where our behavior is influenced by first sight impressions, social categorizations and stereotypes which automatically and unavoidably arise during interactions. Nevertheless, the bidirectional impact of interpersonal coding on dyadic motor interactions has never been directly investigated. Moreover, the neurocognitive bases of social interaction are still poorly understood. In particular, in every-day dyadic encounters we usually interact with others in non-imitative fashions (Sebanz et al. 2006), challenging the hypothesis of a direct matching between action observation and action execution within one system (“common coding approach”, Prinz 1997), which is instead supported by neurophysiological data on the so called “mirror neurons”(Rizzolatti and Sinigaglia 2010) which fire both during action execution and observation of similar actions performed by others. Suggestion is made that what characterizes joint action is the presence of a common goal (i.e. the “shared” goal, Butterfill 2012) which organizes individuals’ behaviour and channel simulative processes. During her PhD, Lucia Sacheli developed a novel interactive scenario able to investigate face-to-face dyadic interactions within a naturalistic and yet controlled experimental environment, with the aim to build a more coherent model of the role of simulative mechanisms during social interaction and on the role of socio-emotional variables in modulating these processes. This scenario required pairs of participants to reciprocally coordinate their reach-to-grasp movements and perform on-line mutual adjustments in time and space in order to fulfill a common (motor) goal. So far, she demonstrated by means of kinematic data analysis that simulation of the partner’s movement is task-dependent (Sacheli et al. 2013) and modulated by the interpersonal relationship linking co-agents (Sacheli et al. 2012) and by social stereotypes as ethnic biases (Sacheli et al. under review). Moreover, she used the same scenario to investigate the different contribution of the parietal and frontal nodes of the fronto-parietal “mirror” network during joint-action by means of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation combined with analysis of kinematics.