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Love, Trust, and Evolution: Nurturance/Love and Trust as Two Independent Attachment Systems Underlying Intimate Relationships
Abstract
Research has indicated two dimensions of attachment, Avoidance and Anxiety. We show that
Avoidance is better conceptualized as Nurturance/Love within an evolved systems perspective on
personality, and that the Anxiety dimension in infancy measures trust in the face of threat based
on experience. These two dimensions have important differences, including different evolutionary
functions and phylogeny, as well as different emotions, brain mechanisms, and patterns of sex differences
and heritability. We used two versions of the Experiences in Close Relationships Survey
yielding measures of Anxiety and Avoidance, and the Interpersonal Adjective Scale-Revised-Big 5,
the latter chosen because it measures Nurturance/Love in a manner consistent with an evolutionary
perspective on close relationships. 635 subjects participated in the study. Results supported
the hypotheses of a strong negative association between Nurturance/Love and Avoidance as
measured by the ECR and no association between Nurturance/Love and Anxiety as measured by
the ECR.
... Moreover, as self-perceived mate value has been observed to be associated with higher discriminating behavior toward prospective romantic partners (Buss & Schmitt, 1993;Edlund & Sagarin, 2010) and with slow life history (Olderbak, Gladden, Wolf, & Figueredo, 2014), the unrestricted sexual strategy factor should also inversely load on it . Attachment anxiety has been proposed to be an indicator of neuroticism and (negative) emotionality in relationships (MacDonald, Patch, & Figueredo, 2016;Noftle & Shaver, 2006), being more weakly related than attachment avoidance to measures of mating effort (Hazan & Shaver, 1987;Jackson & Kirkpatric, 2007). Frequency and intensity of negative postcoital emotions have been found to be especially predicted by attachment anxiety, with stronger relations to that psychological dimension than to mating effort measures, and moderate correlations among different emotions . ...
... Frequency and intensity of negative postcoital emotions have been found to be especially predicted by attachment anxiety, with stronger relations to that psychological dimension than to mating effort measures, and moderate correlations among different emotions . As attachment anxiety, neuroticism, and negative emotionality have been proposed and demonstrated to adaptively facilitate specific life history and sexual strategies, thus being hypothesized to be evolutionarily influenced by them (Del Giudice, 2009;Fernandes et al., 2015;Figueredo, Vásquez, Brumbach, & Schneider, 2004;MacDonald et al., 2016), we expect the negative emotionality in Sexual Relationships latent factor to be causally explained by the unrestricted sexual strategy latent factor. ...
Individuals exhibit differences in their life history strategies along a continuum that ranges from fast (involving investments in immediate rewards) to slow (involving long-term relationships and investments). Components of life history have been demonstrated to be more strongly correlated in individuals with faster life histories, a phenomenon termed Strategic Differentiation-Integration Effort (SD-IE). Sexual strategies are an intrinsic component of life history, yet have not been examined for SD-IE effects. We tested SD-IE in one student and two general population samples from two countries, among sexual strategy traits and correlates (sociosexual orientation, attachment avoidance, attachment anxiety, three groups of postcoital emotions, mate value, and life history speed). Two latent factors were found to explain the overall associations among these variables. The associations between the two factors and among their respective manifest indicators within factor were stronger in individuals with less restricted sexual strategies and more negative emotionality in sexual relationships, traits which are indicative of overall faster life history, supporting SD-IE hypotheses. Sex differences were identified and accounted for by life history speed differences between men and women. Unifactorial and multifactorial views of human sexual strategies can be argued to be equally supported by data, depending on individual life history speed.
... Nurturance/Love, the second factor emerging from the circumplex model, underlies relationships of intimacy and other long-term relationships, especially family relationships involving reciprocity and transfer of resources to others (e.g., investment in children) ( Kiesler, 1983;Trapnell & Wiggins, 1990;Wiggins, Trapnell, & Phillips, 1988). This trait is not considered to be a temperament dimension of childhood, but individual differences in warmth and affection observable in early parent-child relationships, including secure attachments, are conceptually linked with this dimension later in life ( MacDonald, 1992MacDonald, , 1997MacDonald, , 1999a). Secure attachments and warm, affectionate parent-child relationships have been found to be associated with a high-investment style of parenting characterized by later sexual maturation, stable pair bonding, and warm, reciprocally rewarding, nonexploitative interpersonal relationships ( Belsky, Steinberg, & Draper 1991). ...
... Within the IAS scheme, the cold-quarrelsome scale, which is opposite to the warm-agreeable scale reflects autonomy in interpersonal relationships and "the disposition not to be warm, cooperative, and nurturant when such behaviors would be appropriate" ( Wiggins & Broughton, 1985, p. 42). Finally, Nurturance/Love is separate from security of attachment ( MacDonald, 1992MacDonald, , 1999a), with functions, different emotions, a different distribution among the primates, a different pattern of theoretically expected sex differences, different mechanisms (a neurological reward system versus the internal working model), and different patterns of heritability. Regarding the latter, recently Bokhorst et al. (2003;see also O'Connor & Croft, 2001) found negligible heritability for attachment security; many studies have shown the heritability of personality dimensions related to Nurturance/Love (e.g., Bouchard, 1996). ...
... A fast LH strategy has been linked to greater risktaking, lower behavioral self-regulation, greater sexual promiscuity, and greater disregard for social rules (Figueredo et al., 2006). A slow LH strategy, in contrast, has been linked to monogamy, greater parenting effort, greater behavioral selfregulation, future orientation, and greater and more attentive regard for social rules MacDonald et al., 2016). The LH strategy, therefore, is hypothesized to predict individual differences in mating effort (and, conversely, parenting effort), including but not limited to partner-directed violence and sexual coercion. ...
Conceptually driven by life history theory, the current study investigated a hypothesized hierarchy of behaviors leading to men's perpetration of violence in intimate relationships. Using a series of hierarchical regressions, we tested a causal cascade model on data provided by 114 men in a committed romantic relationship. The results supported the hypothesized hierarchy of sociodevelopmental events: (1) men's childhood experiences with their parents’ parental effort predicted men's life history strategies; (2) men's life history strategies predicted men's behavioral self-regulation; (3) men's self-regulation predicted men's perceptions of partner infidelity risk; (4) perceptions of infidelity risk predicted men's frequency of engagement in nonviolent mate retention behaviors; (5) men's mate retention behaviors predicted men's frequency of partner-directed violence. The overall cascade model explained 36% of variance in men's partner-directed violence.
... Similarly, mate value is based on a comparison between an individual and other members of the same sex with respect to characteristics-such as physical attractiveness or caregiving-which are valued by potential mating partners because they provide benefits in terms of higher reproductive success of those who mate with such individuals [28]. These mate value characteristics can be of various nature, including physical dispositions linked to health and fecundity (e.g., physical attractiveness and youth) [29], status and nurturance (e.g., physical prowess), but also psychological traits and skills predisposing an individual to caregiving, emotional support, and the like (such as nurturance, love, agreeableness, and emotional stability) [30,31]. ...
We assessed the relative contribution of economic, personal, and affective power bases to perceived relationship power. Based on evolutionary studies, we predicted that personality dominance and mate value should represent alternative personal power bases. Our sample was comprised of 84 Czech heterosexual couples. We measured the economic power base using self-report scales assessing education, income and work status. Personal power bases were assessed using self-report measures of personality dominance (International Personality Item Pool Dominance and Assertiveness subscale from NEO Personality Inventory-Revised Extraversion scale), and partner-report measures of mate value (Trait-Specific Dependence Inventory, factors 2–6). The first factor of Trait-Specific Dependence Inventory, which measures agreeableness/commitment was used to assess the affective power base. Our results show that perceived relationship power is associated with a perception of partner’s high agreeableness/commitment. Moreover, women’s personality dominance and mate value are also linked with perceived relationship power, which supports our evolutionary prediction of dominance and mate value working as power bases for women. The stronger effect of women’s than men’s power bases may be due to gender differences in investment into relationships and/or due to transition to more equal relationships currently sought by women in the Czech Republic.
... Furthermore, an alternative rotation of Big Five extroversion and agreeableness, yielding the interpersonal circumflex variables dominance and nurturance (Trapnell & Wiggins, 1990), might do better than extroversion at capturing LHS-linked variance. Using this framework, MacDonald et al. (2016) found that nurturance is negatively associated with avoidant attachment and positively associated with the Mini-K (i.e., a slower LHS). Finally, this study used only self-report data, which has limits that have been widely discussed (Funder, 2001). ...
The dark triad (DT) traits are differentially related to psychometrically assessed life history strategy (LHS), such that psychopathy is strongly associated with a faster LHS, whereas narcissism appears to be, if anything, a slow LHS indicator. However, the research supporting these generalizations has been based largely on undergraduate samples in which LHS has been measured using the Arizona Life History Battery (ALHB; or its short version the Mini-K), an instrument that arguably lacks adequate coverage of low-extroversion content linked to a slower LHS. In this study, 929 U.S. MTurk workers completed a set of DT instruments, a 10-item Big Five Inventory, a 42-item version of the ALHB (K-SF-42), and the life history rating form (LHRF), which is less weighted toward high extroversion content than the ALHB. Factor analysis of the DT instruments yielded factors corresponding to callousness, secondary psychopathy, and socially adaptive narcissism (leadership/authority and grandiose exhibitionism). Callousness and secondary psychopathy were fast LHS indicators with respect to both LHS instruments. Socially adaptive narcissism appeared as a slow LHS indicator with respect to the K-SF-42 but as a fast LHS indicator with respect to the LHRF. Variation in extroversion accounted entirely for the K-SF-42's positive association with socially adaptive narcissism. This study suggests that narcissism's apparent status as a slow LHS indicator may be more a matter of measurement than of substance.
... Mary Ainsworth began to tease apart these ideas when she observed the presence of sensitivity but not warmth in Ugandan maternal care of infants (Ainsworth, 1967;Ainsworth et al, 1974). Since then, MacDonald (1992) and MacDonald et al (2016) have observed from an evolutionary perspective that maintaining contact and protection from caregivers in moments of fear or anxiety is seen in almost all mammals in naturalistic settings but that tender and warm interactions are not. ...
Examining mechanisms for the transmission of emotion between caregivers and their children is a growing concern for theories of child psychological development. One established mechanism for such transmission is biobehavioural synchrony, a phenomenon that is considered normative in early childhood and that has been associated with the child's capacity for empathy across development. Yet very little is known about synchrony on features of vocal affect between mothers and their children beyond infancy, or about characteristics of the child that might disrupt such processes. This thesis proposes callous-unemotional (CU) traits as one such characteristic, due to impairments in emotion processing and empathy that characterise this population. Study 1 used a novel integrative paradigm of clinical psychological assessment, speech signal feature extraction, and the dynamic time series approach of cointegration to test the hypothesis that synchrony of vocal affect is a prevalent phenomenon in the interactions of mothers and their children aged 4 to 8 years (M = 6.04; SD = 1.50). Studying a large number of acoustic-prosodic parameters in a large sample of dyads (N = 79 dyads; 66% male children), synchrony was found to be a widespread occurrence during mother-child emotion talk, and both mothers and their children demonstrated the capacity to influence each other's vocal qualities. However, its prevalence was also dyad dependent. As hypothesised, Study 2 found that callous-unemotional traits were associated with disruption on a range of acoustic-prosodic parameters, particularly pitch and energy, and these disruptions were moderated by maternal characteristics. In contrast, child empathy was associated with positive relationships to synchrony on vocal parameters. Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), a condition characterised by emotional and behavioural dysregulation, was not a predictor of disruption to synchrony. Study 3 investigated vocal parameters associated with characteristics of the child and found that callous-unemotional children, but not their mothers, displayed substantial differences on two key parameters of vocal expression: a narrower pitch range and a greater proportion of speaking time, findings that are consistent with the restricted affect and impaired empathy in the CU construct. For children with a diagnosis of ODD, the interactional system of mothers and their children was characterised by high levels of mutual vocal arousal. Study 4 investigated vocal features associated with caregiving qualities of the mother. Lower pitch and intensity values by both the mother and child characterised observed-rated attuned conversations, with linguistic content and acoustic-prosodic parameters working together to optimise conveyance of this important caregiving quality. Attunement was particularly notable in increasing the comparatively poor speaking time of high empathy children. There was no association between the mother's warmth or attunement and child CU traits, and these qualities did not moderate the shallower pitch range of high CU children. However the mother's dismissiveness was found to be particularly deleterious to the compromised pitch range of these children. This research is the first to demonstrate synchrony as a dynamic, bidirectional phenomenon prevalent across a large number of acoustic-prosodic parameters between mothers and their children, and to demonstrate the application of cointegration as a methodology to the study of acoustic-prosodic expression. It is the first study to show disruption to synchronous vocal processes - as well as other differences in vocal expression - for children with CU traits. The findings have implications for establishing the vocal channel as a bidirectional source of emotion contagion between mothers and their children, and for biobehavioural synchrony as a promising field of study for children with CU traits.
... The idea that individualism is genetically based is also presented in Chapter 1, citing Frost (2017), as is the idea that genetic changes can occur rapidly, citing Cochran and Harpending (2010); the latter fits well with West-Eberhard's work on plasticity in evolution. Empathy is a key trait related to individualism, and in Chapter 8 I discuss its heritability, citing the review in MacDonald, Patch, and Figueredo (2016), and noting that this trait is higher in women for entirely understandable evolutionary reasons. Empathy is key because of its role in historically important social movements such as the campaign against slavery in Britain (Chapter 7) and as a component of the contemporary West "saturated with images of suffering refugees, immigrants, and other non-whites" that appeal to women more than men (Chapter 8); I argue, on the basis of Richard Lynn's (2018) work, that empathy is higher in Western populations. ...
This is an exchange between Kevin MacDonald and Gerhard Meisenberg on issues related to MacDonald's book Individualism and the Western Liberal Tradition. Issues include 1. the origin of the ancient Greeks; 2. the genetic basis of individualism; 3. altruism in tribal moral communities; 4. populism and the intellectual elite; 5. tribalism and assimilation as they relate to immigrant communities in the West; 6. whether resisting immigration of genetically dissimilar peoples is adaptive; 7. ethnic genetic interests vs. genetic interests based on social class membership.
... Altruism towards one's kin, friends, and community are the traits correlated with slow LH (Gladden et al. 2010). Fast strategies, on the other hand, favor aggressive and deviant behaviors (MacDonald et al. 2016). These do not constitute worldviews as such but, through often being part of stereotypes related to social and gender-related roles (Eagly and Steffen 1986), may be a manifestation of a worldview. ...
Life history theory (LHT) is a mid-level theory from evolutionary biology. LHT, adapted to humans, assumes that individuals can be placed along a single continuum of LH strategies referred to as the slow-to-fast LH continuum: faster life history strategists score higher on mating effort and lower on somatic and parental effort. In the present study we examine the hypothesis that worldview and coping strategies are mediators between somatic and parental effort (SPE) and current perceived stress. 226 participants completed a set of instruments: Mini-K, the World Assumptions Scale, Brief COPE, and the Perceived Stress Scale. In order to test the hypotheses about mediators, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used. The results from the current study showed that individuals allocating their own resources to SPE experienced lower current stress, and felt positive about the benevolence and meaningfulness of the world as well as the worthiness of the self. A more complex linkage was also revealed: individuals displaying SPE endorsed stronger beliefs about self-worth, which in turn was associated with a lower tendency to use disengagement coping and which again translated into a lower level of perceived stress. Furthermore, females investing in SPE maintained a higher level of belief in the meaningfulness of the world, which translated into a higher tendency to use external support for coping.
... One was to completely eliminate the Anxious Attachment subscale of the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) measure of romantic partner attachment and retain only the Avoidant Attachment subscale of the ECR for the present sampling of items. The former has recently shown a very tenuous relationship to life history strategy while the latter shows much stronger relationship and is more theoretically in line with its predictions (MacDonald, Patch, & Figueredo, 2016). The other was to eliminate from consideration the set of items in the General Altruism scale sampling Altruism Towards Children, as it tended to produce an overabundance of missing data in younger samples of participants, and was not deemed theoretically essential to the construct being measured. ...
The purpose of the present article is to propose an alternative short form for the 199-item Arizona Life History Battery (ALHB), which we are calling the K-SF-42, as it contains 42 items as compared with the 20 items of the Mini-K, the short form that has been in greatest use for the past decade. These 42 items were selected from the ALHB, unlike those of the Mini-K, making direct comparisons of the relative psychometric performance of the two alternative short forms a valid and instructive exercise. A series of secondary data analyses were performed upon a recently completed five-nation cross- cultural survey, which was originally designed to assess the role of life history strategy in the etiology of interpersonal aggression. Only data from the ALHB that were collected in all five cross-cultural replications were used for the present analyses. The single immediate objective of this secondary data analysis was producing the K-SF-42 such that it would perform optimally across all five cultures sampled, and perhaps even generalize well to other modern industrial societies not currently sampled as a result of the geographic breadth of those included in the present study. A novel method, based on the use of the Cross-Sample Geometric Mean as a criterion for item selection, was used for generating such a cross- culturally valid short form.
... For laterborn children, there is no advantage to trying to duplicate the same role as firsts, they need to find their own niche and their openness to experience with less adherence to rules and authority facilitates this (Healey & Ellis, 2007;Sulloway, 1999). A majority of past research on birth order differences has focused on personality traits (mostly the big five) and has not always produced consistent results (Salmon, 2012), though examinations of the facets within the big five factors are illuminating in that some of the component facets trend in contrary directions (for example, the nurturance versus dominance aspects of extraversion and agreeableness; see MacDonald, Patch, & Figueredo, 2016). Behavioral studies have produced more consistent patterns of results (Sulloway & Zweigenhaft, 2010). ...
Much of the research on birth order has focused on individual differences in personality traits, with relatively few studies focused on aspects of social behavior other than sibling conflict. However, one would predict that the differences in parental investment and niche differentiation that shape personality differences between siblings would also influence other social relationships. In particular, middleborns may be more likely to prioritize non-kin relationships. This study investigated the impact of birth order on a number of measures of prosocial behavior. Results suggest that birth order has a moderate effect on prosociality such that later birth orders exhibit greater prosociality. However, both the linear and quadratic effects were significant and the quadratic was negative indicating that the greatest increase in prosociality is seen between first and secondborns, the rate of change decelerates as birth order and prosociality increase.
Background: Emotional divorce refers to a situation in which the emotional relationship, support, passion, warmth, attention, love, and intimacy between couples (husband & wife) decline or diminish. Such conditions lead to an unaffectionate marital life to the point that the couples are only together under one roof. Accordingly, the present study aimed to explore the role of attachment styles and spiritual intelligence in predicting emotional divorce in women. Methods: This study employed a descriptive-correlational design. The research population included all women filing for divorce who were referred to marriage counseling and couple therapy centers in districts 5 and 6 in Tehran City, Iran, in 2020. In total, 400 women who met the inclusion criteria were selected as the study participants using voluntary response and convenience sampling techniques. The required data were collected by the Emotional Divorce Scale, the Adult Attachment Scale, and the Self-Report Measure of Spiritual Intelligence. The collected data were analyzed using the multiple regression analysis method in SPSS V. 22. Results: The obtained results suggested a significant positive relationship between the anxious-avoidant attachment style and emotional divorce (P<0.01). Furthermore, there was a significant negative relationship between spiritual intelligence and emotional divorce; the higher the spiritual intelligence, the lower the emotional divorce (P=0.02). Accordingly, spiritual intelligence and anxious-avoidant attachment style can predict emotional divorce (Multiple Regressions=-0.58). Conclusion: The present study data suggested that premarital education and counseling before spouse selection help in examining the personality traits of the parties. Moreover, paying attention to the role of health professionals, such as family counselors, psychologists, and psychiatric nurses in providing premarital counseling and education to couples and emphasizing the role of spiritual intelligence and attachment styles may prevent emotional separation and divorce among couples.
Background & objectives: Suicidal thoughts have been found to be associated with a wide variety of factors. A key factor is a history of childhood and family adversity. Previous studies have shown that troubled romantic relationships are associated with higher risk factors for mental health. Also, evidence suggests that those who have a secure attachment styles in childhood have fewer symptoms of psychopathology and higher psychosocial functioning throughout the lifespan (especially romantic relationship) compared to individuals with an insecure attachment style. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of emotional failure and attachment styles in predicting suicidal thoughts among university students of Azad university of Ardabil.
Methods: In this study, descriptive and correlational design was defined as a research method. The statistical population of this study was all university students of the Ardabil Azad University, who studied in the academic year of 2018 (N=4231). The sample consisted of 80 people who were selected by purposive sampling. Beck's suicidal thoughts questionnaire, Simpson's attachment style questionnaire and Ross's love hit questionnaire were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and multivariate regression analysis.
Results: The results of the research showed that emotional failure (r=0.35) and unsafe attachment style (r=0.23) had a positive correlation with suicidal thoughts, and secure attachment style (-0.40) had a significant negative correlation with suicidal thoughts (p
The aim of this study was to predict love trauma and depression based on attachment styles of university students with emotional breakdown. The conducted study is descriptive and correlation, and the population consisted of all Qom University students with emotional breakdown who studied in the academic years of 2015-16. 200 students were selected by purposive sampling method. For data collection, Attachment Style(Collins and Reid, 1990), Beck Depression(Beck, 1961) and Love Trauma(Ross, 1999) Inventories were used. To test the hypotheses, software spss was used that the results showed from attachment styles only avoidant style is able to predict love trauma(p>0/001) and depression(p>0/006) significantly.
Keywords: love trauma syndrome, depression, attachment styles, emotional breakdown.
Secondary analyses of Revised NEO Personality Inventory data from 26 cultures (N = 23,031) suggest that gender differences are small relative to individual variation within genders; differences are replicated across cultures for both college-age and adult samples, and differences are broadly consistent with gender stereotypes: Women reported themselves to be higher in Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Warmth, and Openness to Feelings, whereas men were higher in Assertiveness and Openness to Ideas. Contrary to predictions from evolutionary theory, the magnitude of gender differences varied across cultures. Contrary to predictions from the social role model, gender differences were most pronounced in European and American cultures in which traditional sex roles are minimized. Possible explanations for this surprising finding are discussed, including the attribution of masculine and feminine behaviors to roles rather than traits in traditional cultures.
Building on evolutionary models of personality proposed in the first edition of the Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, this chapter considers the evolutionary significance of a relatively new higher-order personality construct, the so-called general factor of personality (GFP). The history of the construct is reviewed, along with a large portion of the recent theoretical literature addressing the existence and nature of the GFP and the empirical literaturerelevant to that. Finally, a review and evaluation is conducted of various recent attempts to develop and test a hierarchical
We propose a hierarchical model of multilevel selection to explain the various direct and indirect causal pathways through which life history (LH) selection influences social evolution and development. This multilevel selection model describes a hierarchical cascade of consequences wherein natural selective pressures generate both individual and social sequelae, which in turn produce social selective pressures that generate sexual sequelae, which in turn produce sexual selective pressures that generate further sexual sequelae. Thus, the generative natural selective pressures constrain (but do not determine) the social selective pressures, which then constrain the sexual selective pressures that drive both LH evolution and development. Further, as in Bronfenbrenner’s (The ecology of human development: experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1979) ecological systems theory, the directionalities of these probabilistic transactions among levels may also operate in the opposite direction, from the lower to the higher levels of the hierarchy.
Meta-parenting in the journey of child rearing: A cognitive mechanism for change Although it is commonly known that the single most fundamental issue in developmental psychology is the dynamic between continuity and change in children (e.g., Cairns, 1979; Maccoby, 1984), it is less well recognized that this is also an essential issue in the study of parenting (Holden & Miller, 1999). Continuity and change in child rearing are central issues for understanding both ongoing parent-child relationships and how parents may affect their children's development. Furthermore, the ability to modify parental behavior has important implications for interventions into many types of social problems, ranging from child maltreatment to health, school, and conduct problems in children and youth. Much of the research into parenting conducted in the last century adopted the view that parenting is characterized by continuity (Holden, 1997). Parents were assumed to think and interact with their children similarly across ...
Doctoral Dissertation. University of Arizona.
A growing body of empirical literature supports the validity of psychometric assessments of human life history strategies, but no comprehensive quantitative summaries have yet been published. We present a psychometric validation study of a 20-item Short-Form of the Arizona Life History Battery (ALHB), the Mini-K, using meta-analytic procedures to survey a multiplicity of published and unpublished studies on English-speaking North American college student samples. Correlations between the Mini-K with other measures of related constructs describe the dimensions of the broader conceptual framework encompassed by human life history strategy and empirically establish a nomological network surrounding the Mini-K by quantitatively characterizing its system of relations to related and unrelated constructs. These constructs include the General Factor of Personality, Mutualistic and Antagonistic Social Strategies, Emotional Intelligence, Executive Functions, Covitality, and Evaluative Self-Assessment as well as other indicators of human life history strategy, including all those comprising the ALHB and many others not used in the ALHB, and indicators of one’s Romantic Partner’s life history strategy. Although a single measure cannot capture something as complex and multifaceted as life history strategy, both the Mini-K and the ALHB of which it is a part, perform as predicted by evolutionary psychological theory within this wider conceptual framework.
This book provides an authoritative and comprehensive synthesis of current research on the evolution and physiological control of sexual behaviour in the primates - prosimians, monkeys, apes, and human beings. This new edition has been fully updated and greatly expanded throughout to incorporate a decade of new research findings. It maintains the depth and scientific rigour of the first edition, and includes a new chapter on human sexuality, written from a comparative perspective.
[define and discuss] the 3 dominant approaches to conceptualizing and measuring individual differences in adult attachment: dimensional, typological, and prototype / outline a particular theory of adult attachment, K. Bartholomew's 4-category model, that incorporates all 3 approaches / describe the associated measurement instruments / define and illustrate a number of conceptual questions that arise within and between the measurement approaches / how can the 'correct' attachment dimensions be identified / are these dimensions reducible to general personality factors / are prototype measures of attachment more powerful than categorical measures / what implications do the different approaches hold for the assessment of reliability and stability / emphasize the interconnection of theoretical analysis and measurement procedure (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Hierarchical relations among theoretically generated lower order scales of adult temperament were explored in two studies. In Study One, 258 undergraduates completed the Adult Temperament Questionnaire (ATQ). A five-factor model emerged from exploratory factor analysis, with factors labeled Orienting Sensitivity, Effortful Control, Extraversion, Affiliativeness, and Negative Affect. This model showed considerable convergence with the Big Five. Study Two, with a community sample of 700 participants, yielded a six-factor model, distinguishing aggressive negative affect from non-aggressive negative affect. Relations of the six temperament factors to Cloninger’s TCI, the Five Factor Model, and the Multi-Language Seven were investigated, providing support for the discriminating power of the six-factor temperament model in understanding individual differences in adult temperament and personality.
• Why do girls tend to earn better grades in school than boys? Why are men still far more likely than women to earn degrees in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics? And why are men on average more likely than women to be injured in accidents and fights? These and many other questions are the subject of both informal investigation in the media and formal investigation in academic and scientific circles. In his landmark book Male, female: The evolution of human sex differences (see record 2000-07043-000 ), author David C. Geary provided the first comprehensive evolutionary model to explain human sex differences. Now, over 10 years since the first edition, Geary has completed a massive update, expansion, and theoretical revision of his classic text. New findings in brain and genetic research inform a wealth of new material, including a new chapter on sex differences in patterns of life history development; expanded coverage of genetic research (e.g., DNA fingerprinting to determine paternity as related to male-male competition in primates); fatherhood in humans; cross-cultural patterns of sex differences in choosing and competing for mates; and genetic, hormonal, and sociocultural influences on the expression of sex differences. Finally, through his motivation to control framework, Geary presents a theoretical bridge linking parenting, mate choices, and competition with children's development and sex differences in brain and cognition. The result is a lively and nuanced application of Darwin's insight to help explain our heritage and our place in the natural world. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)
• Why do girls tend to earn better grades in school than boys? Why are men still far more likely than women to earn degrees in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics? And why are men on average more likely than women to be injured in accidents and fights? These and many other questions are the subject of both informal investigation in the media and formal investigation in academic and scientific circles. In his landmark book Male, female: The evolution of human sex differences (see record 2000-07043-000 ), author David C. Geary provided the first comprehensive evolutionary model to explain human sex differences. Now, over 10 years since the first edition, Geary has completed a massive update, expansion, and theoretical revision of his classic text. New findings in brain and genetic research inform a wealth of new material, including a new chapter on sex differences in patterns of life history development; expanded coverage of genetic research (e.g., DNA fingerprinting to determine paternity as related to male-male competition in primates); fatherhood in humans; cross-cultural patterns of sex differences in choosing and competing for mates; and genetic, hormonal, and sociocultural influences on the expression of sex differences. Finally, through his motivation to control framework, Geary presents a theoretical bridge linking parenting, mate choices, and competition with children's development and sex differences in brain and cognition. The result is a lively and nuanced application of Darwin's insight to help explain our heritage and our place in the natural world. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)
Empathy involves an understanding of what others are thinking and feeling, and enables us to interact in the social world. According to the Empathizing-Systemizing (E-S) theory, females on average have a stronger drive to empathize than males. This sex difference may in part reflect developmental differences in brain structure and function, which are themselves under the influence of fetal testosterone (fT). Previous studies have found that fT is inversely correlated with social behaviors such as eye contact in infancy, peer relationships in preschoolers, and mentalistic interpretation of animate motion. Male fetuses are exposed to higher levels of testosterone than are female fetuses. The present study investigates empathizing in children, as a function of amniotic measures of fT. One hundred ninety-three mothers of children (100 males, 93 females) aged 6-8 years of age completed children's versions of the Empathy Quotient (EQ-C), and the children themselves were tested on "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Task (Eyes-C). All mothers had had amniocentesis during the 2nd trimester of pregnancy. There was a significant negative correlation between fT and scores on both measures. While empathy may be influenced by post-natal experience, these results suggest that pre-natal biology also plays an important role, mediated by androgen effects in the brain. These results also have implications for the causes of disabilities involving empathy, such as autism spectrum conditions, and may explain the increased rate of such conditions among males.
This target article presents an integrated evolutionary model of the development of attachment and human reproductive strategies. It is argued that sex differences in attachment emerge in middle childhood, have adaptive significance in both children and adults, and are part of sex-specific life history strategies. Early psychosocial stress and insecure attachment act as cues of environmental risk, and tend to switch development towards reproductive strategies favoring current reproduction and higher mating effort. However, due to sex differences in life history trade-offs between mating and parenting, insecure males tend to adopt avoidant strategies, whereas insecure females tend to adopt anxious/ambivalent strategies, which maximize investment from kin and mates. Females are expected to shift to avoidant patterns when environmental risk is more severe. Avoidant and ambivalent attachment patterns also have different adaptive values for boys and girls, in the context of same-sex competition in the peer group: in particular, the competitive and aggressive traits related to avoidant attachment can be favored as a status-seeking strategy for males. Finally, adrenarche is proposed as the endocrine mechanism underlying the reorganization of attachment in middle childhood, and the implications for the relationship between attachment and sexual development are explored. Sex differences in the development of attachment can be fruitfully integrated within the broader framework of adaptive plasticity in life history strategies, thus contributing to a coherent evolutionary theory of human development.
1. Analyses have been made of milk collected from thirty wild African elephants immediately after they were shot.
2. The milk contained an average of 5.1% protein, 9.3% fat and 3.6% lactose. The concentration of lactose decreased and the concentration of protein and fat increased with advancing lactation. Inorganic constituents were present in approximately the same proportions as in bovine milk.
3. The contribution of capric acid to the total fatty acids, previously shown to be extremely high, increased with advancing lactation.
4. The significance of these findings to the preparation of a milk for rearing young elephants by hand is discussed.
Parental care is one strategy which helps ensure the survival of offspring and thereby enhances the parents’ reproductive success (see Klopfer, this volume; Pianka, 1970). In mammals, parental care usually involves behavioral interactions between parents and offspring. One form these interactions can take is that of parent and infant attachment, the subject of this chapter.
This chapter explores early separation anxiety (SA) and its relationship to adult anxiety disorders. It outlines pathological forms of separation anxiety, early SA and its developmental antecedents, developmental outcomes of juvenile SA, and formulations regarding the adult outcome of juvenile separation anxiety disorder (JSAD). It then presents familial and developmental models of SA.
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The dominant paradigm in current personality psychology is a reinvigorated version of one of the oldest approaches, trait psychology. Personality traits are “dimensions of individual differences in tendencies to show consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions.” In this context, trait structure refers to the pattern of co-variation among individual traits, usually expressed as dimensions of personality identified in factor analyses. For decades, the field of personality psychology was characterized by competing systems of trait structure; more recently a consensus has developed that most traits can be understood in terms of the dimensions of the Five-Factor Model. The consensus on personality trait structure is not paralleled by consensus on the structure of affects. The chapter discusses a three-dimensional model, defined by pleasure, arousal, and dominance factors in which it is possible to classify such state-descriptive terms as mighty, fascinated, unperturbed, docile, insolent, aghast, uncaring, and bored. More common are two-dimensional systems with axes of pleasure and arousal or positive and negative affect. These two schemes are interpreted as rotational variants—positive affect is midway between pleasure and arousal, whereas negative affect lies between arousal and low pleasure.
Data on reproductive success in traditional cultures suggest that for men, but not for women, range and variance rise as subsistence intensifies. For hunter-gatherers, ranges and variances tend to cluster in single digits: they reach 15 or 16, at the high end. For herder-gardeners, ranges and variances are more consistently in double digits: they get as high as 80 or 85. And for full-time agriculturalists in the first civilizations, ranges consistently ran to triple digits: emperors from Mesopotamia to Peru were the fathers of hundreds of children. In human societies, as in other animal societies, reproductive skew goes up with a more sedentary life.
A basic principle of attachment theory is that early attachment relationships with caregivers provide the prototype for later social relations. Working within an attachment framework, a new 4-group model of characteristic attachment styles in adulthood is proposed. In particular, two forms of adult avoidance of intimacy are differentiated: a fearful style that is characterized by a conscious desire for social contact which is inhibited by fears of its consequences, and a dismissing style that is characterized by a defensive denial of the need or desire for greater social contact. This distinction corresponds to two differing models of the self: people who fearfully avoid intimacy view themselves as undeserving of the love and support of others, and people who dismiss intimacy possess a positive model of the self that minimizes the subjective awareness of distress or social needs. The emotional and interpersonal ramifications of the two proposed styles of adult avoidance are discussed.
This comment on the article by S. Goldberg et al (see record
1999-15264-001) provides theoretical and empirical support for 2 independent systems, love and security of attachment, that have often been confounded in the literature. These systems have different functions, different emotions, a different distribution among the primates, and a different pattern of theoretically expected sex differences. Evidence for this distinction can be found in M. D. S. Ainsworth's (1967) original empirical studies and the recent work of Phillip R. Shaver and his colleagues (K. A. Brennan, L. L. Clark, & P. R. Shaver, 1998), as well as data reported here. The Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory (ECR) was administered to 239 undergraduates. Participants also filled out the Nurturance/Love (LOV) scale from the Interpersonal Adjective Scale Big Five–Revised to explore expected negative correlations between love as measured in standard personality tests and the avoidance factor of the ECR. As predicted, women scored lower on the Avoidance scale and higher on the LOV scale, whereas there were no gender differences in security in close relationships. As predicted, LOV was negatively correlated with avoidance but not with security. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Description of relations among twenty-eight mother-infant pairs in Uganda. Findings indicate earlier manifestation of separation anxiety than in American infants, which seems to be a function of the closer attachment of infant to mother in Uganda. Harvard Book List (edited) 1971 #593 (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Recent recognition that the dominance and nurturance dimensions of the interpersonal circumplex correspond closely to the surgency/extraversion and agreeableness dimensions of the five-factor model of personality provides an occasion for the closer integration of these two traditions. We describe the procedures whereby we extended our adjectival measure of the circumplex Revised Interpersonal Adjective Scales (IAS-R) to include the additional Big Five dimensions of conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. The resultant five-scale instrument (IASR-B5) was found to have excellent structure on the item level, internally consistent scales, and promising convergent and discriminant properties when compared with the NEO Personality Inventory and the Hogan Personality Inventory. The unique feature of the IASR-B5 is that it provides a highly efficient instrument for combined circumplex and five-factor assessment. We provide an example of such combined assessment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The thesis of this chapter is that evolutionary theory can make a major contribution to conceptualizing children's internalization of parental values; the subject matter is broadly divided into 4 sections. The 1st section develops an evolutionary framework in which internalization is a facet of high-investment parenting and is expected to covary with a number of other life history variables, including age of puberty, developmental plasticity, and intelligence. This section stresses the tendency for intercorrelations among a large number of variables related to internalization and other aspects of parental investment—what the author terms the coherence of development.
The 2nd section discusses adolescent sexual behavior as an example of developmental coherence, stressing its interrelationships with other variables associated with internalization and parental investment. I argue that external cultural supports for adaptive behavior are of less importance for high-investment families than for families that are, for genetic and/or environmental reasons, less inclined toward high-investment parenting.
The 3rd section contrasts 2 theoretical approaches to life history theory.
The 4th section discusses some specific mechanisms related to internalization.
I will argue that parent–child warmth functions to channel children's social learning within the family. Although this chapter concentrates on the influence of warmth on social learning, an evolutionary perspective on social learning is also compatible with supposing that evolution has shaped children's preferences for other features of models such as dominance, high social status, and similarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Integrates previous theory and research addressing interpersonal complementarity, a construct that is central to refined and extended research and clinical applications of interpersonal theory. The 1982 Interpersonal Circle is presented, which the present author constructed as a comprehensive taxonomy of the domain of 2-dimensional interpersonal behavior. The 1982 Circle integrates and expands the content of 4 major adult interpersonal measures (the Interpersonal Check List, the Interpersonal Adjective Scales, the Interpersonal Behavioral Inventory, and the Impact Message Inventory) to provide a circle taxonomy consisting of 16 segments 128 subclasses, 2 levels, and 350 bipolar items. Previous conceptions of interpersonal complementarity are reviewed and, using the 1982 Circle as a theoretical and operational guide, 11 propositions of complementarity as they apply in personality, psychopathology, and psychotherapy are derived. (108 ref)
The evolutionary theory of sex implies a theoretically
principled account of the causal mechanisms underlying personality
systems in which males pursue a relatively high-risk strategy compared
to females and are thus higher on traits linked to sensation seeking
and social dominance. Females are expected to be lower on these traits
but higher on traits related to nurturance and attraction to long-term
relationships. The data confirm this pattern of sex differences. It is
thus likely that these traits have been a focus of natural selection
rather than the traits of gregarious/aloof and arrogant/unassuming
hypothesized by Depue & Collins.
Three studies were conducted to examine the correlates of adult attachment. In Study 1, an 18-item scale to measure adult attachment style dimensions was developed based on Hazan and Shaver's (1987) categorical measure. Factor analyses revealed three dimensions underlying this measure: the extent to which an individual is comfortable with closeness, feels he or she can depend on others, and is anxious or fearful about such things as being abandoned or unloved. Study 2 explored the relation between these attachment dimensions and working models of self and others. Attachment dimensions were found to be related to self-esteem, expressiveness, instrumentality, trust in others, beliefs about human nature, and styles of loving. Study 3 explored the role of attachment style dimensions in three aspects of ongoing dating relationships: partner matching on attachment dimensions; similarity between the attachment of one's partner and caregiving style of one's parents; and relationship quality, including communication, trust, and satisfaction. Evidence was obtained for partner matching and for similarity between one's partner and one's parents, particularly for one's opposite-sex parent. Dimensions of attachment style were strongly related to how each partner perceived the relationship, although the dimension of attachment that best predicted quality differed for men and women. For women, the extent to which their partner was comfortable with closeness was the best predictor of relationship quality, whereas the best predictor for men was the extent to which their partner was anxious about being abandoned or unloved.
The heritability of adult attachment styles as measured by the Relationship Scales Questionnaire (RSQ) was estimated on data from a volunteer general population sample of 220 adult twin pairs (116 monozygotic pairs. 104 dizygotic pairs). Additive genetic effects accounted for 37%, 43%, and 25% of the variance in the secure, fearful, and preoccupied adult attachment styles, respectively, but none of the variance in the dismissing style. Nonshared environmental influences accounted for the majority of the variance in all styles: 63% secure, 57% fearful, 75% preoccupied, and 71% dismissing. Shared environmental effects were negligible for all styles except dismissing (29%).
This paper provides an evolutionary account of the human affectional system as indexed by the construct of warmth. It is argued that although warmth and security of attachment are often closely intertwined in actual relationships, warmth must be distinguished from security of attachment. Warmth is conceptualized as a reward system which evolved to facilitate cohesive family relationships and paternal investment in children. Individual differences in this system underlie the dimension of warmth in parent-child research as well as a similar dimension revealed in factor-analytic studies of personality traits. Warmth plays an important motivational role in children by facilitating compliance and the acceptance of adult values, and is viewed as one of several discrete evolved systems underlying personality development. Although securely attached children typically have affectionate relationships with caregivers in many societies, it is hypothesized that warmth is complexly related to attachment classification. Consistent with a discrete systems perspective, research is reviewed indicating that relationships based on warmth and affection are often highly compartmentalized and can coexist with relationships based on exploitation and aggression.
Missing data constitute a common but widely underappreciated problem in both cross-sectional and longitudinal research. Furthermore, both the gravity of the problems associated with missing data and the availability of the applicable solutions are greatly increased by the use of multivariate analysis. The most common approaches to dealing with missing data are reviewed, such as data deletion and data imputation, and their relative merits and limitations are discussed. One particular form of data imputation based on latent variable modeling, which we call Multivariate Imputation, is highlighted as holding great promise for dealing with missing data in the context of multivariate analysis. The recent theoretical extension of latent variable modeling to growth curve analysis also permitted us to extend the same kind of solution to the problem of missing data in longitudinal studies. Data simulations are used to compare the results of multivariate imputation to other common approaches to missing data.
In an exploration of the degree to which gender role orientations would attenuate differences on a set of variables specified in a friendship model, 105 women and 101 men described themselves and their best friend of each gender on the Bem Sex Role Inventory. They also described their relationships with each friend using the Acquaintance Description Form F. Women's friendships with female friends were especially strong and rewarding as compared to their friendships with men, and as compared to men's friendships with either women or men. There was a modest attenuating effect due to subjects' GROs. Women, but not men, were sensitive to the perceived GROs of friends, with androgynous friends providing the strongest and broadest array of rewards. Contrary to the common conception of women's friendships as expressive and men's as instrumental, the results suggest that women's friendships are both expressive and instrumental.
The theme of separateness and connectedness plays a central role in many schools of psychological thought. While traditional theories, such as those of Mahler in 1975 and Winnicot in 1965, conceptualize a universal development of separateness and connectedness, a number of recent theories such as those of Choderow in 1978, Gilligan in 1982, Frankenstein in 1966, Bakan in 1966, and Gutmann in 1965, propose gender differences such that males are more separated and females are more connected. The present study examined the hypothesis that men are more separated (as measured by self—other differentiation and independence) and women are more connected (as measured by empathy and desire for intimacy). Thirty men and 30 women (Israelis of western origin) responded to self-report questionnaires. Males and females were found to differ with regard to all four variables examined, such that men are more differentiated and independent, and women are more empathic and desire higher intimacy. These results are consistent with those theories that propose that males are more separate and females are more connected. The results are relevant as to the nature of the constructs themselves. The relationships between the variables defining separateness and connectedness suggest that these constructs are complex and multifaceted.
Twenty children who met DSM-III-R criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) were identified among 190 consecutive referrals to an anxiety clinic for children and adolescents. Children and their families were assessed directly for lifetime psychopathology with structured diagnostic interviews, at which time sociodemographic data also were collected. Results indicated that clinically referred childhood OCD is more common among boys, and that boys have an earlier age-at-onset than their female counterparts. As true for adult patients with the disorder, obsessions without compulsions were relatively rare, multiple rituals were common, and the most common compulsive ritual was washing. Comorbid anxiety disorders were common among the children, but depressive disorders were rare. Examination of the psychiatric histories of the first- degree relatives (mothers, fathers, siblings) yielded a prevalence rate of 7.7% for OCD; thus, we did not obtain strong support for the notion that the disorder aggregates within families. Findings from this study provide independent confirmation of results previously obtained from the NIMH cohort of OCD children.
Several studies have explored associations between measures of adult attachment style and the Big Five personality traits or factors, but the studies have not included current dimensional measures of attachment style (Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998) or the most complete (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992) and frequently used (BFI; John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991) measures of the Big Five. Moreover, most studies after Shaver and Brennan’s (1992) have not compared attachment style and Big Five measures as predictors of relationship quality. Here, we summarize past research and report two studies comparing Brennan et al.’s two-dimensional measure of attachment style with the BFI and NEO-PI-R measures of the Big Five. There are consistent and theoretically meaningful associations between the attachment-style and personality trait measures, but attachment-style dimensions still predict relationship quality better than measures of the Big Five. Implications are discussed.
Sexual selection theory suggests that willingness to participate in risky or violent competitive interactions should be observed primarily in those age-sex classes that have experienced the most intense reproductive competition (fitness variance) during the species' evolutionary history, and in those individuals whose present circumstances are predictive of reproductive failure.Homicidal conflicts in the city of Detroit in 1972 are reviewed in the light of the above perspective. Homicide in Detroit, as elsewhere, is overwhelming a male affair. Victim and offender populations are almost identical, with unemployed, unmarried, young men greatly overrepresented. The most common conflict typologies are described, and it is suggested that many, perhaps most, homicides concern status competition.Other manifestations of “taste for risk,” such as daredevilry and gambling are briefly reviewed. The evidence suggests that such a taste is primarily a masculine attribute, and is socially facilitated by the presence of peers in pursuit of the same goals.Such dangerous, competitive acts as the classic “trivial altercation” homicide often appear foolhardy to observers. However, it remains unknown whether the typical consequences of such acts are ultimately beneficial or detrimental to the perpetrators' interests.
We describe an integrated theory of individual differences that traces the behavioral development of life history from genes to brain to reproductive strategy. We provide evidence that a single common factor, the K-Factor, underpins a variety of life-history parameters, including an assortment of sexual, reproductive, parental, familial, and social behaviors. We explore the psychometrics and behavioral genetics of the K-Factor and offer a speculative account of the proximate mediation of this adaptive patterning of behavior as instantiated in well-established functions of specific areas of the human brain, including the frontal lobes, amygdala, and hippocampus. We then apply Life History Theory to predict patterns of development within the brain that are paedomorphic (i.e., development begins later, proceeds at a slower rate, and has an earlier cessation) and peramorphic (i.e., development begins early, proceeds at a faster rate, and has a later cessation).
The mother-infant bond provides the foundation for the infant's future mental health and adaptation and depends on the provision of species-typical maternal behaviors that are supported by neuroendocrine and motivation-affective neural systems. Animal research has demonstrated that natural variations in patterns of maternal care chart discrete profiles of maternal brain-behavior relationships that uniquely shape the infant's lifetime capacities for stress regulation and social affiliation. Such patterns of maternal care are mediated by the neuropeptide Oxytocin and by stress- and reward-related neural systems. Human studies have similarly shown that maternal synchrony--the coordination of maternal behavior with infant signals--and intrusiveness--the excessive expression of maternal behavior--describe distinct and stable maternal styles that bear long-term consequences for infant well-being. To integrate brain, hormones, and behavior in the study of maternal-infant bonding, we examined the fMRI responses of synchronous vs intrusive mothers to dynamic, ecologically valid infant videos and their correlations with plasma Oxytocin. In all, 23 mothers were videotaped at home interacting with their infants and plasma OT assayed. Sessions were micro-coded for synchrony and intrusiveness. Mothers were scanned while observing several own and standard infant-related vignettes. Synchronous mothers showed greater activations in the left nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and intrusive mothers exhibited higher activations in the right amygdala. Functional connectivity analysis revealed that among synchronous mothers, left NAcc and right amygdala were functionally correlated with emotion modulation, theory-of-mind, and empathy networks. Among intrusive mothers, left NAcc and right amygdala were functionally correlated with pro-action areas. Sorting points into neighborhood (SPIN) analysis demonstrated that in the synchronous group, left NAcc and right amygdala activations showed clearer organization across time, whereas among intrusive mothers, activations of these nuclei exhibited greater cross-time disorganization. Correlations between Oxytocin with left NAcc and right amygdala activations were found only in the synchronous group. Well-adapted parenting appears to be underlay by reward-related motivational mechanisms, temporal organization, and affiliation hormones, whereas anxious parenting is likely mediated by stress-related mechanisms and greater neural disorganization. Assessing the integration of motivation and social networks into unified neural activity that reflects variations in patterns of parental care may prove useful for the study of optimal vs high-risk parenting.
Despite significant evidence that opioids are involved in attachment by mediating social reward and motivation, the role of opioids in the formation of adult social attachments has not been explored. We used the socially monogamous prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) to explore the role of endogenous opioids in social bonding by examining partner preference formation in female prairie voles. We hypothesized that μ-opioid receptors (MORs) in the striatum have a critical role in partner preference formation. We therefore predicted that peripheral administration of an opioid receptor antagonist would inhibit partner preference formation, and more specifically, that μ-opioid selective receptor blockade within the striatum would inhibit partner preference formation. To test our hypotheses, we first administered the non-selective opioid antagonist naltrexone peripherally to females during an 18-h cohabitation with a male and later tested the female with a partner preference test (PPT). Females showed a dose schedule-dependent decrease in partner preference in the PPT, with females in the continuous dose group displaying stranger preferences. Next, we administered microinjections of the MOR selective antagonist D-Phe-Cys-Tyr-D-Trp-Arg-Thr-Pen-Thr-NH2 (CTAP) into either the nucleus accumbens shell (NAS) or the caudate-putamen (CP) immediately before a 24-h cohabitation with a male, and later tested the female with a PPT. Females receiving CTAP into the CP, but not the NAS, showed no preference in the PPT, indicating an inhibition of partner preference formation. We show here for the first time that MORs modulate partner preference formation in female prairie voles by acting in the CP.
Influences of early androgen exposure on personality were investigated. Participants were either exposed to abnormal levels of androgens prenatally due to congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH, 40 females, 29 males), or were unaffected relative controls (29 females, 30 males). Compared to female controls, females with CAH were less tender-minded (p<.001; 16 Personality Factor Inventory (16PF)), and reported greater physical aggression (p=.03; Reinisch Aggression Inventory) and less interest in infants (p<.001; Melson's Questionnaire), but did not differ in dominance (16PF). Males with CAH did not differ from male controls in interest in infants but were less dominant (p=.008), and more tender-minded (p=.033) and reported reduced physical aggression (p=.025). Thus, both males and females with CAH showed alteration in three of the four constructs assessed. Prenatal androgen exposure may shift some, but not all, personality characteristics in the male-typical direction in females. It may also be associated with a decrease in some aspects of male-typical personality development in males, although personality differences in males with CAH could relate to illness.
A new 4-group model of attachment styles in adulthood is proposed. Four prototypic attachment patterns are defined using combinations of a person's self-image (positive or negative) and image of others (positive or negative). In Study 1, an interview was developed to yield continuous and categorical ratings of the 4 attachment styles. Intercorrelations of the attachment ratings were consistent with the proposed model. Attachment ratings were validated by self-report measures of self-concept and interpersonal functioning. Each style was associated with a distinct profile of interpersonal problems, according to both self- and friend-reports. In Study 2, attachment styles within the family of origin and with peers were assessed independently. Results of Study 1 were replicated. The proposed model was shown to be applicable to representations of family relations; Ss' attachment styles with peers were correlated with family attachment ratings.
The concept of "reproductive strategy" drawn from the field of behavioral ecology is applied to the study of childhood experience and interpersonal development in order to develop an evolutionary theory of socialization. The theory is presented in terms of 2 divergent development pathways considered to promote reproductive success in the contexts in which they have arisen. One is characterized, in childhood, by a stressful rearing environment and the development of insecure attachments to parents and subsequent behavior problems; in adolescence by early pubertal development and precocious sexuality; and, in adulthood, by unstable pair bonds and limited investment in child rearing, whereas the other is characterized by the opposite. The relation between this theory and prevailing theories of socialization, specifically, attachment, social-learning, and discrete-emotions theory, is considered and research consistent with our evolutionary theory is reviewed. Finally, directions for future research are discussed.
Gusii patterns of reproduction and child care evolved in an agrarian setting in which land was abundant and children were scarce. With land now scarce and children abundant, parents continue to be resourceful and strategic in their infant care, but they have not altered their reproductive goals.
This study is concerned with the development of companionship and intimacy. Subjects in the second, fifth, and eighth grades (mean ages, respectively, 7.5, 10.4, and 13.4) rated the importance and extent of companionship and intimate disclosure experienced in social life in general and in each of 8 types of relationships. Companionship was perceived as a desired social provision at all 3 grade levels. Family members were important providers of companionship for children in the second and fifth grades, but they became significantly less so in the eighth grade. Same-sex peers were important providers across all 3 grades, and they became increasingly important as children grew older. Opposite-sex peers did not become important as companions until the eighth grade. Counter to expectations, there were no age differences in the global desire for intimacy. Parents were important providers of intimate disclosure for the youngest children, but they were less important among the younger adolescents. There was mixed support for the hypothesis that same-sex friends become important providers of intimacy during preadolescence. Findings were different for boys and girls, suggesting that girls seek intimate disclosure in friendship at younger ages than boys do.