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Background: Previous human ethology studies have demonstrated that the interpersonal interactions displayed in therapy by both patients and therapists influences a patient's depression improvement. Pairing novel statistical techniques such as the hidden Markov model (HMM), interpersonal interaction dynamics can be uncovered by partitioning time into empirically-derived nonverbal behavioral states. This approach allows for better patient-therapist behavioral dynamics distinctions in predicting depression improvement and, subsequently, for the processes behind depression improvement. Methods: For the 39 participating patients, the first 15 min of the first or second therapy session was recorded on video to examine the interpersonal interaction behaviors of patients and therapists. The video recordings were encoded for vocalization, looking and leg movement behavior events at a 1 s frequency. A Bayesian multivariate multilevel HMM was fitted on the behavioral event data. Results: It is demonstrated that patients that show improvement in the depression score are characterized by interpersonal interaction dynamics of hyperfocus when listening to their therapist in psychotherapy when compared to non-improving patients. The data supports evidence for the emergence of differences in interpersonal interaction dynamics through changed durations of the patient hyper focused listening states, but not through changed state-switching dynamics over time. Limitations: Due to our relatively small sample size we could not fit multilevel HMMs composed of more than three hidden states. Conclusions: We suggest that applying HMMs will aid human ethological behavior studies in uncovering interpersonal interaction dynamics that occur in therapy and be able to use these dynamics to predict patient depression symptom improvement.

During the 1970s, ethologists at the German Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Seewiesen started a series of research projects at several regional kindergartens in search of natural predispositions in human behavior. This so‐called "Kindergarten Project" became one of the pillars of research activity at the newly founded Forschungsstelle für Humanethologie (Research Center for Human Ethology) where Irenäus Eibl‐Eibesfeldt and a team of researchers set out to explore new fields of research for the discipline of ethology. Taking the research project conducted by biologist Barbara Hold on ranking behavior among kindergarten children as a vantage point, this paper explores the shift in ethology from animal to human behavior which occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. It analyzes how human ethologists coped with the methodological, conceptual, and ethico‐political challenges which arose from crossing the human‐animal divide. This article thus sheds light on the hitherto unwritten history of human ethology as it was developed at the MPI since the late 1960s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Subject's behavior is recorded during a testing session under ecological settings. • Data is obtained by behavioral coding from 7-minute video footage with an ethogram. • We propose a temporal classification method for time series behavior analysis. • BvFTD apathetic patients were stratified according to their behavioral kinetics. • The classification method can be extended to any behavioral study encoding time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1970s, ethologists at the German Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Seewiesen started a series of research projects at several regional kindergartens in search of natural predispositions in human behavior. This so-called "Kindergarten Project" became one of the pillars of research activity at the newly founded Forschungsstelle für Humanethologie (Research Center for Human Ethology) where Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt and a team of researchers set out to explore new fields of research for the discipline of ethology. Taking the research project conducted by biologist Barbara Hold on ranking behavior among kindergarten children as a vantage point, this paper explores the shift in ethology from animal to human behavior which occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. It analyzes how human ethologists coped with the methodological, conceptual, and ethico-political challenges which arose from crossing the human-animal divide. This article thus sheds light on the hitherto unwritten history of human ethology as it was developed at the MPI since the late 1960s., (© 2022 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)