Many attachment behaviors in nonhuman animals include physical touch and maintaining proximity through close body contact; in humans, behavior patterns associated with attachment are accompanied by feelings of security, peace, comfort, and reduced anxiety when in physical contact with a partner (Fisher, 1998). According to Harlow’s (Harlow & Harlow, 1966) age-mate affectional system, during the period of motor incoordination, infants that physically contact each other reflexively cling and clasp to one another for bodily contact. Though motherless, the test subjects have each other to kindle one another’s emotional maturation through physical exposure. Consequently, as the infants grow and develop, clinging and clasping to one another for physical
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But what is the biological basis of this complex sentiment? What we know to be romantic love may very well be a developed form of a mammalian drive to pursue preferred mates, which undoubtedly has reproductive and genetic consequences (Aron et al., 2005). Birds and mammals distinguish among potential mates, judging which would make better breeding partners, and though perhaps distinct neural systems, the three primary emotion categories associated with mating – the sex drive, courtship attraction, and attachment (otherwise known as romantic love) – have all evolved to orchestrate different aspects of the reproductive process (Fisher, 1994; Fisher et al., 2006). American anthropologist Helen Fisher (1994) hypothesizes that these categories evolved “to initiate mating and sustain male-female associations long enough to ensure reproduction and survival of the young” while promoting species-specific parental duties. Specifically, the sex drive, characterized by the craving for sexual gratification, evolved to motivate individuals to seek copulation with a range of partners (Fisher, 1998). The sex drive neural circuitry varies between species but is known to be innate and present in all mammals, suggesting that sexual union between individuals to produce offspring is an evolutionary constant and universal phenomenon (Fisher, 1998). Attraction, characterized by …show more content…
Several neuropeptides have been implicated in male-female bonding, group bonding, and mother-infant bonding in mammals […]. Recent data indicate that oxytocin and vasopressin released in the central nervous system are the primary hormones that produce monogamous male-female attachment and monogamous parenting behaviors in
But what is the biological basis of this complex sentiment? What we know to be romantic love may very well be a developed form of a mammalian drive to pursue preferred mates, which undoubtedly has reproductive and genetic consequences (Aron et al., 2005). Birds and mammals distinguish among potential mates, judging which would make better breeding partners, and though perhaps distinct neural systems, the three primary emotion categories associated with mating – the sex drive, courtship attraction, and attachment (otherwise known as romantic love) – have all evolved to orchestrate different aspects of the reproductive process (Fisher, 1994; Fisher et al., 2006). American anthropologist Helen Fisher (1994) hypothesizes that these categories evolved “to initiate mating and sustain male-female associations long enough to ensure reproduction and survival of the young” while promoting species-specific parental duties. Specifically, the sex drive, characterized by the craving for sexual gratification, evolved to motivate individuals to seek copulation with a range of partners (Fisher, 1998). The sex drive neural circuitry varies between species but is known to be innate and present in all mammals, suggesting that sexual union between individuals to produce offspring is an evolutionary constant and universal phenomenon (Fisher, 1998). Attraction, characterized by …show more content…
Several neuropeptides have been implicated in male-female bonding, group bonding, and mother-infant bonding in mammals […]. Recent data indicate that oxytocin and vasopressin released in the central nervous system are the primary hormones that produce monogamous male-female attachment and monogamous parenting behaviors in