CORRELATIONAL ANALYSIS OF DYAD-LEVEL DATA IN THE EXCHANGEABLE CASE

Many research problems in psychology require statistical methods that take into account the dependencies introduced by dyadic interaction. The authors provide correlational tools for dyadic data when the individuals within the dyads are both from the same class or category, such as 2 male adults. First, the authors provide significance tests for correlations between 2 variables when individuals are nested within dyads. Second, they provide a simplified method for decomposing the overall correlation into individual-level and dyad-level relations. Finally, the authors demonstrate these methods with dyadic data collected by L,. Stinson and W. Ickes (1992) in a study of unstructured dyadic interactions.