Adaptation and Well-Being
Social Allostasis

Explores the behavioral neuroscience of social attachment and its significance in establishing and maintaining human well-being.

Jay Schulkin (Author)

9780521509923, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 April 2011

212 pages, 51 b/w illus. 22 tables
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.8 cm, 0.56 kg

'Jay Schulkin has a wonderful gift - the ability to extract the seminal messages in the large corpus of work relating biological processes to psychological outcomes and arranging these kernels of fact into a coherent narrative with a direction and a unifying theme.' Jerome Kagan, Harvard University

Recently, an interest in our understanding of well-being within the context of competition and cooperation has re-emerged within the biological and neural sciences. Given that we are social animals, our well-being is tightly linked to interactions with others. Pro-social behavior establishes and sustains human contact, contributing to well-being. Adaptation and Well-Being is about the evolution and biological importance of social contact. Social sensibility is an essential feature of our central nervous systems, and what have evolved are elaborate behavioral ways in which to sustain and maintain the physiological and endocrine systems that underlie behavioral adaptations. Writing for his fellow academics, and with chapters on evolutionary aspects, chemical messengers and social neuroendocrinology among others, Jay Schulkin explores this fascinating field of behavioral neuroscience.

Introduction
1. Evolutionary perspectives and hominoid expression
2. Social competence and cortical evolution
3. A window into the brain
4. Chemical messengers and the physiology of change and adaptation
5. Social neuroendocrinology
6. Cephalic adaptation, devolution and incentives
7. Neocortex, amygdala and prosocial behaviors
Conclusion: evolution, social allostasis and well-being
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Animal behaviour [PSVP], Neurosciences [PSAN]