Psychophysiological methods in family communication research

Wehave beenwitness in the past decade to some extraordinary theoretic andmethodological advances in the study of family communication, as many other chapters in this volume articulate. Among those with the greatest promise for transforming our understanding of family behavior is the collection of methods offered by psychophysiology. In 2004, Floyd articulated the potential of psychophysiological methods for illuminating family communication, as part of a special issue of Journal of Family Communication focused on innovative methodology. Today, psychophysiological research provides an unprecedented look at the connections between familial behavior, physiological response, and health, offering communication researchersmultiple new avenues for effecting improvements in physical well-being via improvements in social well-being. Our goal in this chapter is to introduce the theoretic principles of psychophysiology and to describe various research programs that are exploiting their advantages to improve our understanding of family communication processes. We conclude with recommendations for researchers interested in incorporating psychophysiological methods into their own research.