Conceptual and Methodological Issues in the Analysis of Data from Dyads and Groups

Abstract

This chapter provides a detailed introduction to the analysis of nonindependent data from dyads and groups. We begin the chapter by examining current practices regarding dyadic and group research in social and personality psychology. We then present a set of basic definitions, as well as a brief introduction to multilevel modeling (MLM). Throughout the chapter we present SPSS syntax that can be used to specify the models we describe using variants of MLM. The remainder of the chapter is broken into two sections—the first focuses on dyadic contexts, and the second focuses on group contexts. For dyads we discuss both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs, and we provide a detailed discussion of the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), dyadic growth models, and lagged models. For groups we limit our presentation to methods for cross-sectional research; we describe the APIM for groups, the one-with-many design, and we provide a brief introduction to the social relations model. Examples of how these methods have been used to advance social and personality psychological science are given throughout.