DOI: https://doi.org/10.14710/nmjn.v0i0.23261

Amo Ergo Sum — I love, Therefore, I am – Emotional Synchrony: A Norris’ Method of Concept Clarification

*Cyruz P. Tuppal orcid  -  St. Paul University Philippines System, Philippines
Mark Donald C. Reñosa  -  Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, Philippines
Marina Magnolia G. Ninobla  -  College of Nursing-Muscat Branch, Oman
Mara G. Ruiz  -  College of Nursing-Muscat Branch, Oman
Richard C. Loresco  -  Higher Institute of Health Sciences, Oman
Open Access Copyright (c) 2019 Nurse Media Journal of Nursing

Citation Format:
Abstract

Background: Nursing is an interpersonal process that requires a deeper emotive-caring and communion-encounter with a higher degree of emotional synchrony. However, the social, cultural, ethical, economic, legal, and technological demands make it intangible and indefinable.

Purpose: To identify and delineate the antecedents, defining attributes, and outcomes of emotional synchrony using both empirical and theoretical literature.

Methods: This concept analysis used the Norris’ method of concept clarification. Electronic databases such as OVID, Web of Science, CINHAL, PsychInfo, SocIndex, PubMed, and ProQuest were used to search the keyword ‘emotional synchrony.’ There were fifty-two sources included in the inductive thematic analysis to identify, analyze, recognize, and report the themes generated from the corpus. The discussion is grounded in light of the Theory of Nursing as Caring to elucidate its utility within the parlance of nursing as caring.

Results: The Model of Patterning Emotional Synchrony offers a new perspective toward a meaningful synchronous experience in the communion of beings that illuminates a soul-felt connectedness through the encounter, presence, and bond. The emotional synchrony’ is a phenomenon of caring integration where an intricate dance through a triadic-synchronistic rhythm of fusion, attunement, and effervescence contribute to the personhood, growth in reflection, and capacity to care. Also, as the emotional synchrony becomes an outward expression of caring, and as a manifestation of healing-caring-moment, the person embodies caring as a mode of being and views all persons as caring.

Conclusion: The model explicates that it is the emotional synchrony where the person develops a soul-felt connection with others. It is with emotional synchrony that refuels the synergy and transcendence towards a communion of beings to embody Amo Ergo Sum—I love. Therefore, I am.

Fulltext View|Download
Keywords: Communion of beings; concept clarification; emotional synchrony; nursing as caring

Article Metrics:

Article Info
Section: Articles
Language : EN
Recent articles
Are Nursing Students’ Early Course and Perceived Performance Related to Their Final and Actual Course Performance? Effects of Early Warning Score (EWS) Tutorial Simulation on Nurses' Knowledge and Clinical Performance Impacts of Manual Handling Training and Lifting Devices on Risks of Back Pain among Nurses: An Integrative Literature Review Editorial Front Matter Editorial Back Matter More recent articles
Most cited articles
Knowledge and skills of Emergency Care During Disaster For Community Health Volunteers: A Literature Review Nursing Students’ Attitudes towards Caring for Dying Patients Workplace Stressors and Coping Strategies Among Public Hospital Nurses in Medan, Indonesia The Lived Experience of PLWHA and Partner’s Responses toward the Fulfillment of Sexual Needs A Systematic Review of the Selected Evidences on the Effectiveness of Inter-professional Education (IPE) in Developing Interprofessional Learning Environment More cited articles
  1. References
  2. Adler, H. M. (2007). Toward a biopsychosocial understanding of the patient-physician relationship: An emerging dialogue. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 22(2), 280-285. doi: 10.1007/s11606-006-0037-8
  3. Al-Shawaf, L., Conroy-Beam, D., Asao, K., & Buss, D. M. (2016). Human emotions: An evolutionary psychological perspective. Emotion Review, 8(2), 173-186. doi: 10.1177/1754073914565518
  4. Alligood, M. R. (2014). Nursing theorists and their work (8th ed.). St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier
  5. Arizmendi, T. G. (2011). Linking mechanisms: Emotional contagion, empathy, and imagery. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 28(3), 405-419. doi: 10.1037/a0024176
  6. Athlin, E., & Norberg, A. (1987). Caregivers' attitudes to and interpretations of the behaviour of severely demented patients during feeding in a patient assignment care system. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 24(2), 145-153. doi: 10.1016/0020-7489(87)90056-3
  7. Beitman, B. D. (2011). Coincidence studies. Psychiatric Annals, 41, 561–571
  8. Benner, P. E., & Wrubel, J. (1989). The primacy of caring: Stress and coping in health and illness: Addison-Wesley/Addison Wesley Longman
  9. Bernieri, F. J., Reznick, J. S., & Rosenthal, R. (1988). Synchrony, pseudosynchrony, and dissynchrony: Measuring the entrainment process in mother-infant interactions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(2), 243
  10. Boykin, A., & Schoenhofer, S. (2001). Nursing as caring: A model for transforming practice. New York: National League for Nursing
  11. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. doi: 10.1191/1478088706qp063
  12. Brencick, J. M., & Webster, G. A. (2000). Philosophy of nursing : A new vision for health care. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press
  13. Butler, E. A., & Randall, A. K. (2013). Emotional coregulation in close relationships. Emotion Review, 5(2), 202-210. doi: 10.1177/1754073912451630
  14. Chinn, P. L., & Kramer, M. K. (2008). Integrated theory and knowledge development in nursing (7 ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby Elsevier
  15. Chinn, P. L., & Kramer, M. K. (2015). Knowledge development in nursing: Theory and process (9 ed.). St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Mosby
  16. Chinn, P. L., Maeve, K., M., & Bostick, C. (1997). Aesthetic inquiry and the art of nursing. Scholarly Inquiry for Nursing Practice, 11(2), 83-96
  17. Debrot, A., Schoebi, D., Perrez, M., & Horn, A. B. (2013). Touch as an interpersonal emotion regulation process in couples’ daily lives. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(10), 1373-1385. doi: 10.1177/0146167213497592
  18. Diefendorff, J. M., & Richard, E. M. (2003). Antecedents and consequences of emotional display rule perceptions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(2), 284
  19. Ekman, P. (1992). An argument for basic emotions. Cognition & Emotion, 6(3-4), 169-200
  20. Feldman, R., & Eidelman, A. I. (2004). Parent-infant synchrony and the social-emotional development of triplets. Developmental Psychology, 40(6), 1133-1147. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.40.6.1133
  21. Finset, A., & Ørnes, K. (2017). Empathy in the clinician–patient relationship: The role of reciprocal adjustments and processes of synchrony. Journal of Patient Experience, 4(2), 64-68. doi: 10.1177/2374373517699271
  22. Frazer, C., Sullivan, D. H., Weatherspoon, D., & Hussey, L. (2017). Faculty perceptions of online teaching effectiveness and indicators of quality. Nursing Research and Practice, 2017. doi: 10.1155/2017/9374189
  23. Fridh, I., Kenne Sarenmalm, E., Falk, K., Henoch, I., Öhlén, J., Ozanne, A., & Jakobsson Ung, E. (2015). Extensive human suffering: A point prevalence survey of patients' most distressing concerns during inpatient care. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 29(3), 444-453. doi: 10.1111/scs.12148
  24. Gendron, M., & Barrett, L. F. (2018). Emotion perception as conceptual synchrony. Emotion Review, 10(2), 101-110. doi: 10.1177/1754073917705717
  25. Hagerty, B. M., Lynch‐Sauer, J., Patusky, K. L., & Bouwsema, M. (1993). An emerging theory of human relatedness. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 25(4), 291-296
  26. Hagerty, B. M., & Patusky, K. L. (2003). Reconceptualizing the nurse-patient relationship. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 35(2), 145-150
  27. Hartrick, G. (1997). Relational capacity: The foundation for interpersonal nursing practice. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 26(3), 523-528
  28. Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1993). Emotional contagion. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2(3), 96-100
  29. Helkavaara, M. (2013). Emotional exhaustion and psychosocial work factors. In S. Bährer-Kohler (Ed.), Burnout for experts: Prevention in the context of living and working (pp. 159-168). Boston, MA: Springer
  30. Hochschild, A. R. (2003). The managed heart - commercialization of human feeling, twentieth anniversary edition, with a new afterword. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press
  31. Humphrey, R. H., Burch, G. F., & Adams, L. L. (2016). The benefits of merging leadership research and emotions research. Frontiers in Psychology, 7. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01022
  32. James, I., Andershed, B., Gustavsson, B., & Ternestedt, B.-M. (2010). Emotional knowing in nursing practice: In the encounter between life and death. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, 5(2), 5367. doi: 10.3402/qhw.v5i2.5367
  33. Jung, C. G. (1973). Synchronicity: An acausal connecting principle (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
  34. Jung, J. (2011). Caregivers' playfulness and infants' emotional stress during transitional time. Early Child Development and Care, 181(10), 1397-1407. doi: 10.1080/03004430.2010.532873
  35. Kimura, M., & Daibo, I. (2006). Interactional synchrony in conversations about emotional episodes: A measurement by “the between-participants pseudosynchrony experimental paradigm”. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior(3), 115. doi: 10.1007/s10919-006-0011-5
  36. Koudenburg, N., Postmes, T., & Gordijn, E. H. (2017). Beyond content of conversation. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 21(1), 50-71. doi: 10.1177/1088868315626022
  37. Krejci, J. W. (1992). An exploration of synchrony in nursing. Ph.D. The University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Ann Arbor. Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/
  38. Krejci, J. W. (1995). Synchronous connections: Nursing's little secret. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 9(4), 24-30
  39. Kuhn, S., Muller, B. C. N., van der Leij, A., Ap, D., Brass, M., & van Baaren, R. B. (2011). Neural correlates of emotional synchrony. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 6(3), 368-374. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsq044
  40. Kunst, J. R., Boos, B., Kimel, S. Y., Obaidi, M., Shani, M., & Thomsen, L. (2018). Engaging in extreme activism in support of others' political struggles: The role of politically motivated fusion with out-groups.(research article). PloS One, 13(1), e0190639. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0190639
  41. Lawson, T. T. (2008). Carl jung, darwin of the mind: Karnac Books
  42. Leclère, C., Viaux, S., Avril, M., Achard, C., Chetouani, M., Missonnier, S., & Cohen, D. (2014). Why synchrony matters during mother-child interactions: A systematic review. PloS One, 9(12). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0113571
  43. Lee, T.-H., Miernicki, M. E., & Telzer, E. H. (2017). Families that fire together smile together: Resting state connectome similarity and daily emotional synchrony in parent-child dyads. Neuroimage, 152, 31-37. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.02.078
  44. Leininger, M. M. (1988). Care: The essence of nursing and health: Wayne State University Press
  45. Lindsey, E. W., Colwell, M. J., Frabutt, J. M., Chambers, J. C., & MacKinnon-Lewis, C. (2008). Mother-child dyadic synchrony in european american and african american families during early adolescence: Relations with self-esteem and prosocial behavior. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 54(3), 289-315
  46. McCarthy, M., Fergus, K., & Miller, D. (2016). ‘I–we’ boundary fluctuations in couple adjustment to rectal cancer and life with a permanent colostomy. Health Psychology Open, 3(1). doi: 10.1177/2055102916633582
  47. McCollum, C. (2002). Relatedness and self-definition: Two dominant themes in middle-class americans' life stories. Ethos, 30(1/2), 113. doi: 10.1525/eth.2002.30.1-2.113
  48. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (2018). "Synchrony, n.". Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/synchronicity
  49. Morley, J., Holman, N., & Murray, C. D. (2017). Dressing changes in a burns unit for children under the age of five: A qualitative study of mothers’ experiences. Burns, 43(4), 757-765. doi: 10.1016/j.burns.2016.11.015
  50. Newman, M. A. (1997). Evolution of the theory of health as expanding consciousness. Nursing Science Quarterly, 10(1), 22-25
  51. Norberg, A., & Athlin, E. (1987). The interaction between the parkinsonian patient and his caregiver during feeding: A theoretical model. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 12(5), 545-550. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.1987.tb03043.x
  52. Norris, C. M. (1982). Concept clarification in nursing. Rockville, MD: Aspen
  53. Orlando, I. (1961). The dynamic nurse-patient relationship function, process, and principles. New York: National League for Nursing
  54. Paez, D., Rime, B., Basabe, N., Wlodarczyk, A., & Zumeta, L. (2015). Psychosocial effects of perceived emotional synchrony in collective gatherings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(5), 711-729. doi: 10.1037/pspi0000014
  55. Palagi, E. (2018). Not just for fun! Social play as a springboard for adult social competence in human and non-human primates. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 72(6), 1-14. doi: 10.1007/s00265-018-2506-6
  56. Parse, R. P. (1987). Nursing science: Major paradigms, theories, and critiques. Philadelphia: Saunders
  57. Peplau, H. (1988). Interpersonal relations in nursing (2 ed.). London, UK: MacMillan Education Ltd
  58. Quinn, J. F. (1989). Healing: The emergence of right relationship. In R. Carlson & B. Shield (Eds.), Healers on healing. (pp. 139-144). Los Angeles: JP Tarcher
  59. Randall, A. K., & Butler, E. A. (2013). Attachment and emotion transmission within romantic relationships: Merging intrapersonal and interpersonal perspectives. Journal of Relationships Research, 4, 10. doi: 10.1017/jrr.2013.10
  60. Rennung, M., & Göritz, A. S. (2015). Facing sorrow as a group unites. Facing sorrow in a group divides. PloS One, 10(9). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136750
  61. Reyna, B., Pickler, R. H., & Brown, L. F. (2012). Mother–infant synchrony during preterm infant feeding. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing, 41, S149. doi: 10.1111/j.1552-6909.2012.01362_43.x
  62. Rodgers, B. L. (1989). Concepts, analysis and the development of nursing knowledge: The evolutionary cycle. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 14, 330-335
  63. Rodgers, B. L. (2000). Concept analysis: An evolutionary view. In B. L. Rodgers & K. A. Knafl (Eds.), Concept development in nursing: Foundations, techniques, and applications (pp. 77–102). Philadelphia, PA: WB Sauders Company
  64. Rogers, M. E. (1970). Introduction to the theoretical basis of nursing. Nursing Research, 19(6), 541
  65. Rowe, J. (2003). The suffering of the healer. Nursing Forum, 38(4), 16-20
  66. Schimmack, U., Oishi, S., & Diener, E. (2002). Cultural influences on the relation between pleasant emotions and unpleasant emotions: Asian dialectic philosophies or individualism-collectivism? Cognition & Emotion, 16(6), 705-719
  67. Smith, C. A. (1995). The lived experience of staying healthy in rural african-american families. Nursing Science Quarterly, 8(1), 17-21. doi: 10.1177/089431849500800106
  68. Stieler, M., & Germelmann, C. C. (2016). The ties that bind us: Feelings of social connectedness in socio-emotional experiences. The Journal of Consumer Marketing, 33(6), 397-407
  69. Swatton, S., & O'Callaghan, J. (1999). The experience of 'healing stories' in the life narrative: A grounded theory. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 12(4), 413-429
  70. Tarnow, K. G., & Butcher, H. K. (2005). Annual review of nursing education : Strategies for teaching, assessment, and program planning. In K. Heinrich & M. H. Oermann (Eds.), Annual review of nursing education (Vol. 3). New York: Springer Publishing Company
  71. Tsai, S.-Y., Barnard, K. E., Lentz, M. J., & Thomas, K. A. (2011). Mother-infant activity synchrony as a correlate of the emergence of circadian rhythm. Biological Research for Nursing, 13(1), 80. doi: 10.1177/1099800410378889
  72. Valdesolo, P., & Desteno, D. (2011). Synchrony and the social tuning of compassion. Emotion, 11(2), 262-266. doi: 10.1037/a0021302
  73. Wagner, U., Galli, L., Schott, B. H., Wold, A., van der Schalk, J., Manstead, A. S. R., . . . Walter, H. (2015). Beautiful friendship: Social sharing of emotions improves subjective feelings and activates the neural reward circuitry. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 10(6), 801-808. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsu121
  74. Walker-Andrews, A. S., Krogh-Jespersen, S., Mayhew, E. M. Y., & Coffield, C. N. (2011). Young infants' generalization of emotional expressions: Effects of familiarity. Emotion, 11(4), 842-851. doi: 10.1037/a0024435
  75. Walker, C. J. (2010). Experiencing flow: Is doing it together better than doing it alone? The Journal of Positive Psychology, 5(1), 3-11. doi: 10.1080/17439760903271116
  76. Watson, J. (1985). Nursing: Human science and human care. A theory of nursing. Norwalk, ct: Appleton-century-crofts. Nursing Science Quarterly, 2, 149-154
  77. Whall, A. (1981). Nursing theory and the assessment of families. Journal of Psychiatric Nursing and Mental Health Services, 19(1), 30-36
  78. Williams, L. A., & Bliss-Moreau, E. (2016). Humans are ultrasocial and emotional. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 39, 60. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X15001211
  79. Wiss, M., & Tordjman, S. (2016). Creating a ‘social zeitgeber’ to synchronize family emotional rhythms: A new therapeutic approach in child and adolescent psychiatry. Journal of Physiology - Paris, 110(4), 480-486. doi: 10.1016/j.jphysparis.2017.07.001
  80. Zumeta, L. N., Oriol, X., Telletxea, S., Amutio, A., & Basabe, N. (2016a). Collective efficacy in sports and physical activities: Perceived emotional synchrony and shared flow. 6. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01960
  81. Zumeta, L. N., Oriol, X., Telletxea, S., Amutio, A., & Basabe, N. (2016b). Collective efficacy in sports and physical activities: Perceived emotional synchrony and shared flow. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01960

Last update:

  1. Towards a theory of communion‐in‐caring

    Cyruz P. Tuppal, Paolo D. Vega, Shanine Mae P. Tuppal. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 36 (2), 2022. doi: 10.1111/scs.13049

  2. Early Palliative Care in the Emergency Department: A Concept Clarification

    Kelly Counts, Sue Lasiter. Journal of Caring Sciences, 13 (3), 2024. doi: 10.34172/jcs.33578

Last update: 2025-07-26 22:57:04

No citation recorded.