Modeling affective processes in dyadic relations via dynamic factor analysis

An intraindividual variability design, including application of dynamic factor mod-els, was used to examine the affective processes of a husband–wife dyad over 182 consecutive days. Structural equation analyses indicated differences in the affective structure between the husband and the wife, and these differences were character-ized in terms of their factorial configuration and temporal organization. Examina-tion of the dyad’s affective dynamics revealed unidirectional (i.e., from the husband to the wife) interpersonal influences with a defined structure over time. The study of intraindividual variability is well rec-ognized as a crucial premise to understanding indi-vidual processes. On the strength of this principle, psychologists have devoted substantial effort to ex-amining and comprehending the essence unique to the person (e.g., Allport, 1937). Evidence of the pursuit of this aim are the methods developed to capture an in-dividual’s fluctuations over time (Cattell, 1952, 1961; Cattell, Cattell, & Rhymer, 1947; Zevon & Tellegen, 1982). Illustrative is P-technique factor analysis, in which a person is measured at multiple occasions on many variables to generate an individual multivariate time series. This approach, originally intended to identify individual traits (Cattell et al., 1947; Nessel