Abstract

Objective Affective flexibility, the capacity to respond to life’s varying environmental changes in a dynamic and adaptive manner, is considered a central aspect of psychological health in many psychotherapeutic approaches. The present study examined whether affective two-dimensional (ie, arousal and valence) temporal variability extracted from voice and facial expressions would be associated with positive changes over the course of psychotherapy, at the session, client, and treatment levels. Method A total of 22,741 mean vocal arousal and facial expression valence observations were extracted from 137 therapy sessions in a sample of 30 clients treated for major depressive disorder by nine therapists. Before and after each session, the clients self-reported their level of well-being on the outcome rating scale. Session-level affective temporal variability was assessed as the mean square of successive differences …
Objective

Method

Date

July 25, 2024

Authors

Adar Paz, Eshkol Rafaeli, Eran Bar-Kalifa, Eva Gilboa-Schechtman, Sharon Gannot, Shrikanth S Narayanan, Dana Atzil-Slonim

Journal

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Publisher

American Psychological Association