Human bonding
It most commonly takes place between family members or friends,[1] but can also develop among groups, such as sporting teams and whenever people spend time together.
Bonding typically refers to the process of attachment that develops between romantic or platonic partners, close friends, or parents and children.
[2] In the 4th century BC, the Greek philosopher Plato argued that love directs the bonds of human society.
The incidence of monogamy in primate species is similarly low in contrast with polygyny (one male mating with two or more females), the most common pattern.
Similarly, whilst the 'naturalness' of monogamy in humans is debated,[5] durable monogamous or polygamous relationships will typically be accompanied by affectional or emotional bonding (see next section).
In 1958, British developmental psychologist John Bowlby published the paper "the Nature of the Child's Tie to his Mother," in which the precursory concepts of "attachment theory" were developed.
[citation needed] This motivation accounts for curiosity and intellectual growth of language, mathematics and logic, all of which have an emotional base of security.
It is generally understood that maternal oxytocin circulation can predispose some mammals to show caregiving behavior in response to young of their species.
Breastfeeding has been reported to foster the early post-partum maternal bond, via touch, response, and mutual gazing.
It is difficult to determine the extent of causality due to a number of confounding variables, such as the varied reasons families choose different feeding methods.
Research following Bowlby's observations (above) created some concern about whether adoptive parents have missed some crucial period for the child's development.
However, research regarding The Mental and Social Life of Babies suggested that the "parent-infant system," rather than a bond between biologically related individuals, is an evolved fit between innate behavior patterns of all human infants and equally evolved responses of human adults to those infant behaviors.
[14] In 2003, a researcher from Northwestern University in Illinois found that progesterone, a hormone more usually associated with pregnancy and maternal bonding, may also control the way men react towards their children.
Specifically, they found that a lack of progesterone reduced aggressive behavior in male mice and stimulated them to act in a fatherly way towards their offspring.
[16] Research into the nature and merit of the human–animal bond began in the late 18th century when, in York, England, the Society of Friends established The Retreat to provide humane treatment for the mentally ill. By having patients care for the many farm animals on the estate, society officials theorized that the combination of animal contact plus productive work would facilitate the patients' rehabilitation.
This was an entirely gendered process, as parents and society believed only boys had an innate tendency towards violence and needed to be socialized towards kindness and empathy through companion animals.
In the 19th century, in Bielefeld, Germany, epileptic patients were given the prescription to spend time each day taking care of cats and dogs.
[21] As early as the 1920s, people were starting to utilize the human-animal bond not just for healing, but also granting independence through service animals.
[23] A study in 2003, by the U.S. Department of Defense, based on human-animal bonding determined that there was an improvement and enrichment of life when animals were closely involved with humans.
[17] There is evidence in a variety of species that the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin are involved in the bonding process, and in other forms of prosocial and reproductive behavior.
In humans, there is evidence that oxytocin and vasopressin are released during labor and breastfeeding, and that these events are associated with maternal bonding.
[26] In the reward centers of the limbic system, the neurotransmitter dopamine may interact with oxytocin and further increase the likelihood of bonding.
One of the few studies that looked at the influence of hormones on human bonding compared a control group with participants who had recently fallen in love.
[30] In addition to prolactin's role in the formation of social bonds, it is thought to be involved in romantic attachment, especially in its early stages.
The TSST is a widely accepted stress test in which the research subject undergoes a mock job interview and then a mental arithmetic task in front of a three-person committee.
There is a large variation in the amount prolactin levels increase in different individuals, however the effect is not significantly different between men and women[34] In 1962, while a freshman history major at Harvard, Mark Granovetter became enamored of the concepts underlying the classic chemistry lecture in which "weak" hydrogen bonds hold huge numbers of water molecules together, which themselves are held together by "strong" covalent bonds.
