Main description:

Human beings the world over are eager to form social bonds, and suffer grievously when these bonds are disrupted. Social connections contribute to our sense of meaning and feelings of vitality, on the one hand, and - at times - to our anguish and despair on the other.

It is not surprising that the mechanisms underlying human connections have long interested researchers from diverse disciplines including social psychology, developmental psychology, communication studies, sociology, and neuroscience. Yet there is too little dialogue among these disciplines and too little integration of insights and findings.

This fifth book in the Herzliya Series on Personality and Social Psychology aims to rectify that situation by providing a comprehensive survey of cutting-edge theory and research on social connections. The volume contains 21 chapters organised into four main sections:

Brain (focusing on the neural underpinnings of social connections and the hormonal processes that contribute to forming connections)
Infancy and Development (focusing especially on child-parent relationships)
Dyadic Relationship (focusing especially on romantic and marital relationships)
Group (considering both evolutionary and physiological bases of group processes)

The integrative perspectives presented here are thought-provoking reading for anyone interested in the social nature of the human mind.

Contents:

Contributors
Preface
Introduction, Mario Mikulincer and Phillip R. Shaver
I. Brain

Comparative and Developmental Perspectives on Oxytocin and Vasopressin, Karen L. Bales
Primary-Process Separation-Distress (PANIC/GRIEF) and Reward Eagerness (SEEKING) Processes in the Ancestral Genesis of Depressive Affect and Addictions, Jaak Panksepp, Mark Solms, Thomas E. Schlapfer, and Volker A. Coenen
Romantic Love, Pair-Bonding, and the Dopaminergic Reward System, Bianca P. Acevedo and Arthur P. Aron
The Vicarious Brain, Christian Keysers and Valeria Gazzola
Our Social Baseline: The Role of Social Proximity in Economy of Action, James A. Coan, Casey L. Brown, and Lane Beckes
Emotion, Morality, and the Developing Brain, Jean Decety and Lauren H. Howard

II. Infancy and Development

Child-Parent Attachment and Response to Threat: A Move From the Level of Representation, Jude Cassidy, Katherine B. Ehrlich, and Laura J. Sherman
Synchrony and the Neurobiological Basis of Social Affiliation, Ruth Feldman
Gaze Following: A Mechanism for Building Social Connections Between Infants and Adults, Rechele Brooks and Andrew N. Meltzoff
Beyond Words: Parental Embodied Mentalizing and the Parent-Infant Dance, Dana Shai and Peter Fonagy
Parental Insightfulness and Child-Parent Emotion Dialogues: Their Importance for Children's Development, David Oppenheim and Nina Koren-Karie
The Impact of Early Interpersonal Experience on Adult Romantic Relationship Functioning, Jeffry A. Simpson, W. Andrew Collins, Jessica E. Salvatore, and Sooyeon Sung

III. Adult Close Relationships

Risk Regulation in Close Relationships, Justin V. Cavallo, Sandra L. Murray, and John G. Holmes
Responsiveness: Affective Interdependence in Close Relationships, Harry T. Reis
Attachment Bonds in Romantic Relationships, Phillip R. Shaver and Mario Mikulincer
A Theoretical Perspective on the Importance of Social Connections for Thriving, Brooke C. Feeney and Nancy L. Collins
Sexy Building Blocks: The Contribution of the Sexual System to Attachment Formation and Maintenance, Gurit E. Birnbaum

IV. Group

Evolution of the Social Brain: Psychological Adaptations for Group Living, Mark van Vugt and Tatsuya Kameda
Social Defense Theory: How a Mixture of Personality Traits in Group Contexts May Promote Our Survival, Tsachi Ein-Dor
It's All in the Mind: How Social Identification Processes Affect Neurobiological Responses, Naomi Ellemers, Felice van Nunspeet, and Daan Scheepers
Oxytocinergic Circuitry Motivates Group Loyalty, Carsten K. W. De Dreu

Index