We are all constantly going in and out of sync with the people we meet in our lives: significant others, incidental encounters, and strangers. Synchrony is a ubiquitous phenomenon, considered an evolution-based mechanism of survival. In recent years, technological development has made it possible to collect much data on synchrony across disciplines. The collected data show great potential to shed light on the benefits of this universal phenomenon. At the same time, mixed results emerged, stressing the need for a theory to navigate research inquiries and discoveries. It is proposed here that synchrony serves as an individual-specific mechanism for making relationships curative in all life circumstances, especially therapeutic ones-hence its special relevance for psychotherapy. A synthesis of the majority of the literature across disciplines reveals two implicit assumptions about synchrony, resulting in two separate bodies of knowledge: (a) synchrony is a trait-like signature characterizing individuals; and (b) synchrony is a state-like phenomenon that can be manipulated in the lab. It is proposed here to personalize synchrony research by integrating the two assumptions into a comprehensive theory according to which individuals have a trait-like signature for getting in sync, which determines their physical and mental health, and that this deterministic reality can be subject to state-like manipulation. Individuals can deviate from their trait-like signature. When the deviation is toward normative activation, mental health improves, and the state-like changes are defined as therapeutic. This article calls for research to investigate how trait-like signature of synchrony develops and how it can be therapeutically changed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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如何保持同步是有效的：从心理治疗研究中获得的见解。


我们都在不断地与生活中遇到的人同步或不同步：重要的人、偶然的相遇和陌生人。同步是一种普遍存在的现象，被认为是一种基于进化的生存机制。近年来，技术的发展使得收集大量跨学科同步数据成为可能。收集到的数据显示出揭示这种普遍现象的好处的巨大潜力。与此同时，出现了好坏参半的结果，强调需要一种理论来引导研究询问和发现。这里提出，同步性作为一种个体特异性机制，可以使关系在所有生活环境中，尤其是治疗性环境中发挥作用，因此它与心理治疗具有特殊的相关性。对跨学科大多数文献的综合揭示了关于同步性的两个隐含假设，从而产生了两个独立的知识体系：（a）同步性是一种表征个体的特征状签名； (b) 同步是一种可以在实验室中操纵的类似状态的现象。这里提出通过将这两个假设整合到一个综合理论中来个性化同步研究，根据该理论，个体具有同步特征，这决定了他们的身心健康，并且这种确定性现实可以受到状态的影响-类似操纵。个人可能会偏离他们的特征特征。当偏离规范激活时，心理健康状况会改善，并且类似状态的变化被定义为治疗性的。本文呼吁研究同步性的特征样特征是如何发展的以及如何通过治疗改变它。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。