The Challenges of Conducting Dyadic Research: Studying the Relationship Between Social Anxiety and Social Surrogate Use in Pairs of College Roommates

Dyadic research provides an opportunity to understand the interdependent nature of social behavior. However, this type of design presents a unique set of methodological and statistical challenges. The two studies described in this case involve a dyadic approach to understanding how socially anxious people recruit others to accompany them into social situations, a process known as social surrogacy. The advantages and difficulties associated with taking such a dyadic approach, as well as the other challenges my co-author and I encountered while conducting this research (e.g., distinguishing between confirmatory and exploratory aspects of the studies, recruitment, hypothetical vs. naturalistic assessment techniques) are explored and discussed.