Hyperstructures and the Biology of Interpersonal Dependence: Rethinking Reciprocity and Altruism*

Fluctuations in endogenous opioid activity in the brain, controlled under ordinary conditions by attachment, are capable of producing patterns of dependence in social behavior resembling those appearing in substance abusers. Withdrawal symptoms arising in relation to these fluctuations, short of producing dependence, ordinarily fuel everyday social interaction, and interaction then serves to modulate opioid activity within a range associated with comfort. Comfort-constraints in this sense operate in all settings of social interaction, part of an innate caregiving mechanism conserved by evolution in human behavior. In this paper we present a formal model of the neurosociological mechanism embodying these comfort constraints. Conceptualized as a hyperstructure, the mechanism grounds thinking about social interaction in recent biological discoveries about the brain, and enables sociologists to study how activity in core brain systems constrains deep patterns in social life, including the human tendencies to altruism and reciprocity. Using computational methods, we undertake simulations to study the mechanism, deriving implications about moral behavior. The theory of the hyper-structure leads to new conclusions about reciprocity and altruism, and bears upon sociological understanding of related subjects such as justice and social comparison.

[1]  T. Field,et al.  14 – Attachment as Psychobiological Attunement: Being on the Same Wavelength , 1985 .

[2]  S. Mangelsdorf,et al.  Attachment, Temperament, and Adrenocortical Activity in Infancy. A Study of Psychoendocrine Regulation. , 1989 .

[3]  Michael Banton.  The relevance of models for social anthropology , 1968 .

[4]  N. Fox,et al.  Electroencephalogram Asymmetry in Response to the Approach of a Stranger and Maternal Separation in 10-Month-Old Infants. , 1987 .

[5]  B. Horwitz,et al.  Brain activity during transient sadness and happiness in healthy women. , 1995, The American journal of psychiatry.

[6]  Joseph E LeDoux.  The emotional brain , 1996 .

[7]  S. Mitchell,et al.  Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory , 1983 .

[8]  M. Eigen,et al.  The Hypercycle , 2004, Naturwissenschaften.

[9]  J. Panksepp.  Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions , 1998 .

[10]  Judith Lewis Herman,et al.  Trauma and Recovery , 2015 .

[11]  C. Pilcher,et al.  Social crowding enhances aversiveness of naloxone in rats , 1981, Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior.

[12]  J. Barchas,et al.  Influence of maternal proximity on behavioral and physiological responses to separation in infant rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). , 1990, Behavioral neuroscience.

[13]  F. Goodwin,et al.  Methadone and morphine in depression [proceedings]. , 1981, Psychopharmacology bulletin.

[14]  G. Williams,et al.  Natural selection : domains, levels, and challenges. , 1994 .

[15]  R. Trivers.  The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism , 1971, The Quarterly Review of Biology.

[16]  Katherine Tennes.  The Role of Hormones in Mother—Infant Transactions , 1982 .

[17]  Peter Titelman.  Clinical Applications of Bowen Family Systems Theory , 1998 .

[18]  M. Ridley.  The origins of virtue : human instincts and the evolution of cooperation , 1998 .

[19]  G. Kovacs.  Oxytocin and Behavior , 1986 .

[20]  G. Berntson,et al.  Effect of naloxone on analgesia induced by food deprivation. , 1979, Life sciences.

[21]  David M. Martin,et al.  Methadone and morphine in depression , 1981 .

[22]  R. Hill,et al.  The antinociceptive effect of vaginal stimulation in the rat is reduced by naloxone , 1981, Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior.

[23]  P. Timiras.  The Timing of Hormone Signals in the Orchestration of Brain Development , 1982 .

[24]  M. George.  Seminars in Basic Neurosciences , 1995 .

[25]  S. Orr,et al.  Naloxone-reversible analgesic response to combat-related stimuli in posttraumatic stress disorder. A pilot study. , 1990, Archives of general psychiatry.

[26]  L. Festinger.  A Theory of Social Comparison Processes , 1954 .

[27]  Gregory T. Stevens,et al.  The Architecture of Small Networks: Strong Interaction and Dynamic Organization in Small Social Systems , 1999, American Sociological Review.

[28]  J. Gray,et al.  Psychobiological aspects of relationships between emotion and cognition , 1990 .

[29]  D. Perlman,et al.  Attachment processes in adulthood , 1994 .

[30]  A. Gouldner.  THE NORM OF RECIPROCITY: A PRELIMINARY STATEMENT * , 1960 .

[31]  M. Sahlins.  Stone Age Economics , 2020 .

[32]  A. Schore.  Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self: The Neurobiology of Emotional Development , 1994 .

[33]  David V. Keith,et al.  Family Therapy in Clinical Practice , 1980 .

[34]  S. Eisenstadt.  From Generation to Generation: Age Groups and Social Structure , 1964 .

[35]  D. Derryberry,et al.  Development of individual differences in temperament , 1981 .

[36]  N. Fox,et al.  The relation between neonatal heart period patterns and developmental outcome. , 1985, Child development.

[37]  Thomas R. Insel,et al.  Oxytocin — A neuropeptide for affiliation: Evidence from behavioral, receptor autoradiographic, and comparative studies , 1992, Psychoneuroendocrinology.

[38]  M. Leshem,et al.  Brain serotonin depletion and nipple attachment in rat pups , 1987, Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior.

[39]  D. Stern.  The interpersonal world of infant , 1985 .

[40]  R. Thompson,et al.  Emotion and self-regulation. , 1988, Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation.

[41]  Guillermina Jasso,et al.  Principles of Theoretical Analysis , 1988 .

[42]  Henry Krystal,et al.  Integration and Self Healing: Affect, Trauma, Alexithymia , 1988 .

[43]  K. Uvnäs-Moberg.  Oxytocin and behaviour. , 1994, Annals of medicine.

[44]  Tiffany M Field,et al.  The Psychobiology of attachment and separation , 1985 .

[45]  D. Murphy,et al.  High-dose naloxone infusions in normals. Dose-dependent behavioral, hormonal, and physiological responses. , 1983, Archives of general psychiatry.

[46]  B. Healy.  Autonomic nervous system correlates of temperament , 1989 .

[47]  R. Bodnar,et al.  Naloxone and cold-water swim analgesia: Parametric considerations and individual differences ☆ , 1983 .

[48]  E. Keverne,et al.  Behavioural and endocrine effects of naltrexone in male talapoin monkeys , 1980, Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior.

[49]  M. S. Mahler,et al.  On Human Symbiosis and the Vicissitudes of Individuation , 1967, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association.

[50]  Mark Plonsky,et al.  The effects of methadone on the social behavior and activity of the rat , 1982, Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior.

[51]  Guillermina Jasso,et al.  A New Theory of Distributive Justice , 1980 .

[52]  M. Raleigh,et al.  Adaptation, selection, and benefit-cost balances: Implications of behavioral-physiological studies of social dominance in male vervet monkeys , 1984 .

[53]  R. Wise,et al.  Brain dopamine and reward. , 1989, Annual review of psychology.

[54]  E. Keverne,et al.  Opiate antagonists stimulate affiliative behaviour in monkeys , 1982, Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior.

[55]  Gregory T. Stevens,et al.  Emergence, Self-Organization, and Social Interaction: Arousal-Dependent Structure in Social Systems* , 1996 .

[56]  M. Agronin.  Psychosomatic Medicine and Contemporary Psychoanalysis , 1989, The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine.

[57]  M. Eigen,et al.  The Hypercycle: A principle of natural self-organization , 2009 .

[58]  L. Cosmides,et al.  The Adapted mind : evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture , 1992 .

[59]  K. Miczek,et al.  Opioid-like analgesia in defeated mice. , 1982, Science.

[60]  C. Ferris,et al.  Patterns of brain vasopressin receptor distribution associated with social organization in microtine rodents , 1994, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[61]  M. Hunter,et al.  Adult Attachment , 1999 .

[62]  Thomas Spence Smith.  Catastrophies in interaction: a note on arousal-dependent discontinuities in attachment behavior , 1994 .

[63]  W. Beatty,et al.  Naloxone and play fighting in juvenile rats , 1982, Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior.

[64]  G. Kelly.  Psychopathology and Adaptation in Infancy and Early Childhood: Principles of Clinical Diagnosis and Preventive Intervention , 1984 .

[65]  M. Christie,et al.  Physical dependence on physiologically released endogenous opiates. , 1982, Life sciences.

[66]  R. J. Barfield,et al.  Effects of morphine, β-endorphin and naloxone on catecholamine levels and sexual behavior in the male rat , 1980, Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior.