ABSTRACT
Recent years have seen some extraordinary theoretic and methodological advances in the study of family communication. Among those with the greatest promise for illuminating family behavior is the collection of methods offered by psychophysiology. Today, physiological research provides an unprecedented look at the connections between familial behavior, physiological response, and health, offering communication researchers multiple new avenues for effecting improvements in physical well-being via improvements in social well-being. This chapter introduces theoretic principles of psychophysiology and describes various research programs exploiting their advantages to improve understanding of family communication. Specific attention is paid to various pathways for contributing to physical health and well-being in the context of family interaction. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future research.
