Implicit relational aspects of the therapeutic relationship in psychoanalytic treatments: an examination of linguistic style entrainment over time.

OBJECTIVE: In an attempt to operationalize an implicit aspect of the therapeutic relationship, this study assesses reciprocal linguistic style entrainment (rLSM) between the patient and therapist. rLSM is defined as the dynamic adjustment of function word usage to synchronize or to be in rhythm with another person as they change over time. METHOD: In this exploratory study, levels of rLSM per talk turn were analyzed for 540 sessions of 27 long-term psychoanalytic treatments in relation to treatment outcomes. RESULTS: Within sessions, rLSM appeared to decrease by the end of sessions and followed a negative linear trajectory, ßlinear = -0.0002, SE < .001, t = -13.04, p < .001. Between sessions, rLSM showed significant variability such that neither a linear, nor a quadratic, nor a cubic trend line fit the session-by-session change over treatment. On average, therapist talk turns had significantly lower rLSM than patient talk turns, while accounting for the nested nature of the data using multilevel models ßSpeakerT = -0.033, SE = 0.009, t = -3.65, p < .001. Levels of rLSM did not relate to treatment outcome. CONCLUSION: Most of the rLSM variance was at the within-patient and within-session level. rLSM was no indicator of psychoanalytic treatment outcomes.

Language style matching in psychotherapy: An implicit aspect of alliance.

In an attempt to operationalize an implicit aspect of the therapeutic alliance, this article proposes the use of the innovative, objective, and time-efficient analysis of language style matching (LSM; Niederhoffer & Pennebaker, 2002). LSM, defined as the degree of similarity in rates of function words in dyadic interactions, is thought to reflect the extent to which conversational partners are automatically coordinating language styles to achieve a common goal. Although LSM has often been researched in the context of everyday conversations, little is known about the matching of clients and therapists' language style in the psychotherapy process. To demonstrate the clinical usefulness of the LSM approach in psychotherapy, 2 exploratory examples of the application of LSM in long-term psychoanalytic treatments are provided. First, LSM analyses per session and per speaking-turn are described for psychotherapy data of 140 sessions of 7 long-term psychoanalytic treatments in relation to outcome measures. Then, a case study is described in which LSM is triangulated with an observer-rated measure of working alliance in relation to outcome measures. These 2 demonstrative empirical examples were explorative in character and illustrate how LSM might tap into an implicit aspect of the therapeutic relationship, different from the working alliance measured by observers, and relevant for treatment outcome. Future larger-scale psychotherapy studies into the relationship between these implicit aspects of the alliance and treatment outcome and relevant clients and therapists' variables are warranted. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Beyond Consistency: Contextual Dependency of Language Style in Monolog and Conversation.

Language is highly dynamic: It unfolds over time, and we can use it to achieve a wide variety of communicative goals, from telling a story to trying to persuade another person. One aspect of language that has gained increasing popularity among researchers in the last several decades is the individual language style (LS) represented by an individual's use of function words (e.g., pronouns, articles). Previous approaches to LS mostly focus on LS of one individual in isolation, paying less attention to the fact that language emerges from interaction with others. The aim of this paper is twofold: First, we integrate LS into a dynamical theoretical framework and present an innovative methodological approach. Second, this paper aims to address how interactive conversation-as an aspect of the communicative setting-changes an individual's LS. We use recurrence quantification analysis to look at structure in patterns of LS in monologs and conversations of 118 participants. Our results showed that LS significantly differs from monolog to conversation, and post hoc analyses further revealed that the change in LS is greater for conflict than for friendly conversations. The difference between monologs and conversations is reflected more strongly in the dynamics (i.e., structure and complexity) of LS than the proportion of function words used. Theoretical implications and directions for future studies are discussed.

Introducing rLSM: An integrated metric assessing temporal reciprocity in language style matching.

The way that individuals use function words in a conversation-reflecting how they say things, rather than what they say-is called their individual language style. The dyadic coordination of language styles, called language style matching (LSM), is central to the development of social relationships in conversations. Despite a growing body of research on LSM, conceptual and methodological approaches are inconsistent between scholars. After giving a conceptual overview of LSM, we derive the properties desirable for analyses of LSM in interaction (e.g., reciprocity, consistency, and frequency sensitivity). Building on these properties, the existing three methodological approaches to LSM are reviewed. Since none of the existing metrics fulfills all the desired properties, we introduce a new metric to assess LSM in dyadic interaction, capturing reciprocal adaption throughout the dynamic process of a conversation. Hence, the new metric is called reciprocal LSM (rLSM). To empirically establish the conceptual underpinnings of rLSM, the metric is compared to the LSM metric most commonly used in psychological research. Both metrics are applied to a set of N = 77 transcribed real-life dyadic conversations, analyzed with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software. The results indicate that rLSM is a better estimate of LSM than is the old metric and that there is high conceptual similarity between the two metrics. Implications for existing research and directions for future research are discussed. To facilitate the standardization and comparability of research, guidelines are provided for authors on the use of the new and existing metrics.