Generic aspects of primate attachments: Parents, offspring and mates

We examine behavioral and physiological aspects of primate emotional attach ments in the context of four relationships: infant-to-parent, parent-to-inf ant, and adult male-to-female and adult female-to-male in a monogamous New World species. Emotional attachments in each of these relationships show st riking similarities at a basic functional level. The nature of these simila rities suggests that they are produced by the same psychoneuroendocrine cor e, which appears to be present in all mammals. We also consider the develop ment of each of kind of attachment. In contrast to fundamental similarities in the expression of attachment, their development in each case appears to be based on distinct, species-typical dispositions and constraints. (C) 19 98 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.