title: Synchrony in affect among stressed adults: the Notre Dame Widowhood Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study examined 3 types of synchrony (i.e., asynchrony, synchrony, and desynchrony) between positive and negative affect in a sample of adult widows and assessed whether individual differences in synchrony type predicted adjustment over time.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants included 34 widows from the Notre Dame Widowhood Study, who reported on their positive and negative affect across a 98-day period following conjugal loss and responded to follow-up questionnaires every 4 months for 1 year.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Multilevel models revealed that although the nomothetic average of the synchrony scores indicated a negative or desynchronous relationship between positive and negative affect, an ideographic view identified evidence of individual differences. Furthermore, patterns of change in the relationship between positive and negative affect suggested that, over time, desynchrony in affect generally abates for widows but individual differences were predictive of adjustment over time. Furthermore, distinct trajectories that the women follow from the time of their husband's death include patterns of resilience and delayed negative reaction, each of which predicted present levels of grief.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Discussion focuses on (a) individual differences in the within-person structure in affect, (b) the dynamic processes involving negative and positive affect, and (c) the predictive power of synchrony scores.
authors.affiliation: Correspondence should be addressed to Lindsay M. Pitzer, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 230 McKee Place, Room 217, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. E-mail: pitzerl@upmc.edu.
authors.forename: Lindsay M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Pitzer
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Bergeman
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008875:Middle Aged; D011581:Psychological Tests; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D013997:Time Factors; D017805:Widowhood / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Affective synchrony; Positive and negative affect; Resilience; Stress.