Mario Mikulincer, PhD, is a professor of psychology and dean of the New School of Psychology at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. He has published five books and more than 28 scholarly journal articles and book chapters. Dr. Mikulincer's main research interests are attachment theory, terror management theory, personality processes in interpersonal relationships, coping with stress and trauma, grief-related processes, and prosocial motives and behavior. He is a member of the editorial boards of several scientific journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Inquiry, and Personality and Social Psychology Review, and he has served as associate editor of two journals, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Personal Relationships. Recently, he was elected to serve as chief editor of the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. He received the EMET Prize in Social Science for his contributions to psychology and the Berscheid-Hatfield Award for Distinguished Mid-Career Achievement from the International Association for Relationship Research.  Phillip R. Shaver, PhD, a social and personality psychologist, is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Davis. Before moving there, he served on the faculties of Columbia University, New York University, University of Denver, and State University of New York at Buffalo. He has coauthored and coedited numerous books and has published more than 25 scholarly articles and book chapters. Dr. Shaver's research focuses on attachment, human motivation and emotion, close relationships, personality development, and the effects of meditation on behavior and the brain. He is a member of the editorial boards of Attachment and Human Development, Personal Relationships, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Emotion, and he has served on grant review panels for the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. He has been executive officer of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP) and president of the International Association for Relationship Research (IARR). He has received a Distinguished Career Award and a Mentoring Award from the IARR, a Scientific Influence Award from SESP, and a Career Contribution award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

amp ldquo The diversity of perspectives presented in the current volume makes it a must for scholars interested in the physiological and psychological mechanisms of social bonds. amp rdquo amp ndash CHOICE This edited volume takes what might appear to be disparate topics and creates a narrative of the human social experience that is highly informative and coherent amp hellip Each of the chapters is skillfully edited so that there is relatively little repetition of information across chapters. The result is one of the very few edited books I have encountered in which the chapters flow seamlessly, as if written by one very good author.(PsycCRITIQUES) The diversity of perspectives presented in the current volume makes it a must for scholars interested in the physiological and psychological mechanisms of social bonds.(Choice)

• ContributorsPrefaceIntroduction Mario Mikulincer and Phillip R. ShaverPart I. BrainChapter : Comparative and Developmental Perspectives on Oxytocin and Vasopressin Karen L. BalesChapter 2: 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. Schl amp auml pfer, and Volker A. CoenenChapter 3: Romantic Love, Pair-Bonding, and the Dopaminergic Reward System Bianca P. Acevedo and Arthur P. AronChapter 4: The Vicarious Brain Christian Keysers and Valeria GazzolaChapter 5: Our Social Baseline: The Role of Social Proximity in Economy of Action James A. Coan, Casey L. Brown, and Lane BeckesChapter :Emotion, Morality, and the Developing Brain Jean Decety and Lauren H. HowardPart II. Infancy and DevelopmentChapter 7: Child amp ndash Parent Attachment and Response to Threat: A Move From the Level of Representation Jude Cassidy, Katherine B. Ehrlich, and Laura J. ShermanChapter 8: Synchrony and the Neurobiological Basis of Social Affiliation Ruth FeldmanChapter 9: Gaze Following: A Mechanism for Building Social Connections Between Infants and Adults Rechele Brooks and Andrew N. MeltzoffChapter : Beyond Words: Parental Embodied Mentalizing and the Parent amp ndash Infant Dance Dana Shai and Peter FonagyChapter : Parental Insightfulness and Child amp ndash Parent Emotion Dialogues: Their Importance for Children's Development David Oppenheim and Nina Koren-KarieChapter 2: The Impact of Early Interpersonal Experience on Adult Romantic Relationship Functioning Jeffry A. Simpson, W. Andrew Collins, Jessica E. Salvatore, and Sooyeon SungPart III. Adult Close RelationshipsChapter 3: Risk Regulation in Close Relationships Justin V. Cavallo, Sandra L. Murray, and John G. HolmesChapter 4: Responsiveness: Affective Interdependence in Close Relationships Harry T. ReisChapter 5: Attachment Bonds in Romantic Relationships Phillip R. Shaver and Mario MikulincerChapter : A Theoretical Perspective on the Importance of Social Connections for Thriving Brooke C. Feeney and Nancy L. CollinsChapter 7: Sexy Building Blocks: The Contribution of the Sexual System to Attachment Formation and MaintenanceGurit E. BirnbaumPart IV. GroupChapter 8: Evolution of the Social Brain: Psychological Adaptations for Group Living Mark van Vugt and Tatsuya KamedaChapter 9: Social Defense Theory: How a Mixture of Personality Traits in Group Contexts May Promote Our Survival Tsachi Ein-DorChapter 2 : It's All in the Mind: How Social Identification Processes Affect Neurobiological Responses Naomi Ellemers, F amp eacute lice van Nunspeet, and Daan ScheepersChapter 2 : Oxytocinergic Circuitry Motivates Group Loyalty Carsten K. W. De DreuIndexAbout the Editors