Let $ℛ$ be a semiprime ring with unity $e$ and $\phi$, $\varphi$ be automorphisms of $ℛ$. In this paper it is shown that if $ℛ$ satisfies $$2𝒟\left(x^n\right)=𝒟\left(x^{n-1}\right)\phi \left(x\right)+\varphi \left(x^{n-1}\right)𝒟\left(x\right)+𝒟\left(x\right)\phi \left(x^{n-1}\right)+\varphi \left(x\right)𝒟\left(x^{n-1}\right)$$ for all $x\in ℛ$ and some fixed integer $n\ge 2$, then $𝒟$ is an ($\phi$, $\varphi$)-derivation. Moreover, this result makes it possible to prove that if $ℛ$ admits an additive mappings $𝒟,𝒢:ℛ\to ℛ$ satisfying the relations $$\begin{array}{c}2𝒟\left(x^n\right)=𝒟\left(x^{n-1}\right)\phi \left(x\right)+\varphi \left(x^{n-1}\right)𝒢\left(x\right)+𝒢\left(x\right)\phi \left(x^{n-1}\right)+\varphi \left(x\right)𝒢\left(x^{n-1}\right),\\ 2𝒢\left(x^n\right)=𝒢\left(x^{n-1}\right)\phi \left(x\right)+\varphi \left(x^{n-1}\right)𝒟\left(x\right)+𝒟\left(x\right)\phi \left(x^{n-1}\right)+\varphi \left(x\right)𝒟\left(x^{n-1}\right),\end{array}$$ for all $x\in ℛ$ and some fixed integer $n\ge 2$, then $𝒟$ and $𝒢$ are ($\phi$, $\varphi$)derivations under some torsion restriction. Finally, we apply these purely ring theoretic results to semi-simple Banach algebras.