A great deal is known about how infants form attachments and how these processes carry over
into adolescence. But after that the trail grows cold: the study of adult attachment
emphasizes individual variations paying little attention to the normative mechanisms of adult
bonding.A much-needed corrective Bases of Adult Attachment examines this under-investigated
topic with an eye toward creating a robust theoretical model. The first volume of its kind its
multilevel approach integrates current findings from neuroscience and psychology to analyze the
processes by which adult relationships develop mature function and dissolve. Here in relevant
detail are factors contributing to initial attraction possible scenarios in the evolution from
friendship to attachment and the changes that occur on both sides of a relationship as partners
mutually influence each other's behavior emotions cognition and even physiology. And expert
contributors address long-neglected questions in the field with stimulating topics such as:The
distress-relief dynamic in attachment bonding.An expectancy-value approach to attachment.The
biobehavioral legacy of early attachment relationships for adult emotional and interpersonal
functioning.How early experiences shape attraction partner preferences and attachment
dynamics.How mental representations change as attachments form.Insights into the formation of
attachment bonds from a social network perspective.Bases of Adult Attachment will interest
scholars approaching adult attachment at multiple levels of analysis (neural physiological
affective cognitive and behavioral) and from multiple perspectives. This wide audience
includes developmental social and cognitive psychologists as well as neuroscientists
neuropsychologists clinicians sociologists family researchers and professionals in public
health and medicine.
