Abstract
Discoveries in social neuroscience over the last 30 years have led to startling new knowledge about innate mechanisms associated with the bonding and attachment of newborns and their mothers. This chapter presents a formal theoretical model of the part played in attachment by endogenous opioid peptides and related hormonal and neurotransmitter systems. In these models we see the coupling of two neurosocial oscillators. One is stimulated by attachment and induces activity in the opioid system, and the other is stimulated by separation and raises arousal levels. Central to the optimal functioning of these controls is interpersonal synchronization. We show that synchronization plays a part beyond dyads in generating social networks and in augmenting the integration of whole communities, and conclude by arguing that attachment and interaction function as extensions of the human immune system.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
What is a depot? In abstract terms, a depot is simply a reservoir of resources. In the context of studying complex systems, however, the concept of a depot is important and useful. With depots, or reservoirs of resources, systems have the ability to accomplish work, such as maintaining equilibrium, responding to various demands, or damping and distributing distress. Logically, depots also require associated depot structures that generate and store depot resources for later use and can detect when more resources are required. By identifying depot mechanisms and depot structures and by analyzing their related macroscopic functions, it becomes much easier to understand and model the behavior of complex systems. For example, the human immune system consists of a depot of multiple, specialized cell types (monocytes, lymphocytes, basophils, neutrophils, eosinophils). These cells arise from our primary blood-building depot structure, the bone marrow, a depot of stem cell-generating tissue. There are also associated central and peripheral immune structures, such as the thymus, spleen, and lymphatic system. Our immune systems respond to, and are recruited by, physiological distress. Also, since immune cells have a finite life, they must be constantly renewed, or the result would be eventual immune depot decay.
- 2.
We refer to this sharing of the burdens of infant care “pooling.” Pooling of emotional resources under conditions of stress enables networks to carry higher stress burdens and makes them less vulnerable to breakdowns. For computational evidence that supports this argument, see Smith and Gregory (2002).
- 3.
This energy dependence of networks is a common network property throughout the natural world. Network theorists call this “housekeeping energy”—the level of energy required to prevent a network from collapsing. Fluctuation in energy below the housekeeping threshold will cause networks to collapse. See, for example, Peter Csermely’s discussion (2006).
- 4.
These correspond to two different phases of moral culture. On the one hand, the secular phase is consistent with the view of culture as a “toolkit” from which, once persons act or make decisions, they can retrofit their decision with explanations or justifications (Swidler 1986). This is a phase of diluted social integration and fragmented morality. By contrast, the phase of intensified synchrony and strengthening ties corresponds to those occasions when exogenous oscillators like dance or worship synchronize whole communities and leverage social and moral integration from interaction. An outcome of this phase is that persons use moral reasoning to guide their activities and reach decisions.
References
Banton, M. (1965). The policeman in the community. New York: Basic Books.
Bildack, J. (2000). Detection and function of opioid receptors on cells from the immune system. Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, 7, 719–723.
Blalock, J. E. (1984). The immune system as a sensory organ. Journal of Immunology, 132, 1067–1070.
Blalock, J. E. (2005). The immune system as a sixth sense. Journal of Internal Medicine, 257, 126–138.
Buisson, H. (1958). La Police, son histoire. Paris: Nouvelles Éditiones Latine.
Cacioppo, J., & Berentson, G. (2002). Social neuroscience. In J. Cacioppo, G. Berentson, et al. (Eds.), Foundations in social neuroscience (pp. 3–10). Cambridge: MIT Press.
Cacioppo, J., Berntson, G., Adolphs, R., Sue Carter, C., Davidson, R., McClintock, M., McEwen, B., Meany, M., Schachter, D., Sternberg, E., Suomi, S., & Taylor, S. (Eds.). (2002). Foundations in social neuroscience. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Coleman, J. S. (1964). Introduction to mathematical sociology. New York: The Free Press of Glencoe.
Csermely, P. (2006). Weak links: Stabilizers of complex systems from proteins to social networks. Berlin: Springer.
Durkheim, E. ([1912] 1995). The elementary forms of religious life (Trans. K. Fields). New York: The Free Press.
Fellin, P., & Litwak, E. (1963). Neighborhood cohesion under conditions of mobility. American Sociological Review, 28, 364–376.
Field, T. (1985). Attachment as psychobiological attunement: Being on the same wavelength. In M. Reite & T. Field (Eds.), The psychobiology of attachment separation (pp. 415–454). New York: Academic.
Granovetter, M. (1973). The strength of weak ties. The American Journal of Sociology, 78, 1360–1380.
Hart, P. (1973). Orpheus in the new world: The symphony orchestra as an American cultural institution. New York: W. W. Norton.
Jacobs, J. ([1962] 1992). The death and life of great American cities. New York: Vintage.
Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self, and society (C. Morris, Ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Prigogine, I. (1978). Time, structure, fluctuation. Science, 201, 777–785.
Prigogine, I. (1980). From being to becoming: Time and complexity in the physical sciences. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company.
Prigogine, I., & Stengers, I. (1984). Order out of chaos. New York: Bantam Books.
Raynor, H. (1978). A social history of music and music in society, 2 vols. New York: Taplinger.
Raynor, H. (1978b). The orchestra: A history. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Reite, N., & Field, T. (1985). The psychobiology of attachment and separation. Orlando: Academic.
Schachter, S. (1959). The psychology of affiliation. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Shils, E. (1978). Center and periphery: Essays in macrosociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Smith, T. S. (1994). Catastrophes in interaction. Social Psychology Quarterly, 57, 274–282.
Smith, T. S., & Franks, David. (1999). Emergence, reduction, and levels of analysis. In D. Franks & T. Smith (Eds.), Mind, brain, and society (Volume 5 of Social perspectives on the emotions, pp. 3–18). Stamford: JAI Press.
Smith, T., & Silon, D. (2005, July 12–14) Neurosociological foundations of social networks: Distress-dependent synaptic architecture in social systems. Paper discussed at Plenary Session, International Sociological Association, Interim Meetings, University of Rome.
Smith, T., & Silon, D. (2007). Biological oscillators, circadian clocks, and sacred time. Farfa Abbey: Plenary address made at meetings of the International Sociological Association.
Smith, T. S., & Gregory, T. S. (1996, July). Emergence, self-organization, and social interaction: Arousal-dependent structure in social systems. Sociological Theory, 14, 131–153. [Also: Santa Fe Institute Publication Series, Paper No. 94-08-046.]
Smith, T. S., & Gregory, T. S. (1999). The architecture of small networks: Strong interaction and dynamic organization in small social systems. American Sociological Review, 64, 403–420.
Smith, T. S., & Gregory, T. S. (2002). Hyperstructures and the biology of interpersonal dependence: Rethinking reciprocity and altruism. Sociological Theory, 20, 106–130.
Smith, T. S., Stevens, G. T., Caldwell, S. C., Franks, D., & Smith, T. (1999). The familiar and the strange: Hopfield network models for prototype entrained attachment-mediated neurophysiology. In Mind, brain, and society (Volume 5 of Social perspectives on the emotions, pp. 213–245). Stamford: JAI Press.
Stark, D., & Vedres, B. (2002). Pathways of property transformation (Santa Fe Institute Working Paper No. 20112081).
Swidler, A. (1986). Culture in action. American Sociological Review, 51, 273–286.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Smith, T.S. (2013). Attachment, Interaction, and Synchronization: How Innate Mechanisms in Attachment Give Rise to Emergent Structure in Networks and Communities. In: Franks, D.D., Turner, J.H. (eds) Handbook of Neurosociology. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4473-8_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4473-8_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-4472-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-4473-8
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)