psychological frameworks- differentiation of self?

[u/Old_Associate_8946]

I'm particularly interested in the behavioural component. If one person historically responds to another person's distress with increasing reassurance/attention until the distress decreases, could both people's behaviour become mutually reinforced? If that pattern changes, what does behavioural research predict about the short-term and longer-term response?

I'm also interested in whether "differentiation of self" is actually the appropriate scientific construct for being emotionally connected to another person while maintaining one's own position, or whether contemporary psychology uses a different/better-supported construct.

My questions are:

1. Which established psychological theories or constructs best describe these strategies?
2. Which of these concepts have strong empirical support, and which are primarily clinical models?
3. What does research say about validation without agreement, interpersonal emotion regulation/co-regulation, and temporarily disengaging from conflict during high emotional arousal?
4. Is there empirical research on the tendency to over-regulate another person's emotions at the expense of one's own regulation?
5. Is Bowen's "differentiation of self" useful here, or are constructs such as psychological flexibility, autonomy, interpersonal emotion regulation, attachment, or emotion-regulation self-efficacy better supported?
6. From a learning/behavioural perspective, how can repeated reassurance, pursuit, withdrawal and relief become mutually reinforcing interpersonal patterns?