Research on the interactions of social psychological and physiological processes has become a major focus of interest among psychologists in the past two decades. The study of these interactions deserves a central role in psychology because bi ological determinants of complex behavior are often postulated, or even assumed, and, conversely, pathophysiological processes are often vaguely attributed to psy chological or social processes, such as stress. Sociophysiology was designed to bring together in one volume a representative sample of the broad range of work currently being done in the area of social psychophysiology. Some of the chapters provide a review of the literature while others focus more specifically on current programs of research. All provide new insights into basic relationships and several provide broad integrative schemes. Sociophysiology can serve as a text for both graduate and higher level under graduate courses in psychophysiology or social psychology. The authors represented provide an extensive overview of the discipline and are in the forefront of stimulating further theoretical and empirical development.

Inhalt

I. Biological Background.- 1. Origins of Sociophysiology.- Psychotherapy as Social and Physiological Interaction.- Origins of Physiological Response to Social Stimuli.- 2. Methods in Sociophysiology.- Introduction: All Psychophysiology as Sociophysiology.- Recording Bodily Responses.- Concepts Related to the Interpretation of Recordings.- New Vistas.- 3. An Evolutionary Perspective on Human Social Behavior.- Some Basic Evolutionary Biology.- Implications for Human Social Behavior.- Concluding Discussion.- 4. The Sociophysiology of Infants and Their Caregivers.- The Meaning of the Cardiac Response.- The Cardiac Response and Socioemotional Responsiveness in Infants.- The Cardiac Response and Adult Reactions to Infant Smiles and Cries.- Conclusion.- II. Physiology of Social Cognition, Perception, Learning, and Memory.- 5. Autonomic Self-Perception and Emotion.- and Background.- Visceral Perception and Emotion.- Visceral Perception: Methods and Procedures.- Conclusions.- 6. The Physiological Bases of Nonverbal Communication.- Spontaneous versus Symbolic Communication.- Primary Motivational/Emotional Systems.- Motor Systems of Emotional Expression.- Mechanisms of Excitation and Inhibition in Emotional Expression.- The Physiological Bases of Nonverbal Communication.- Summary.- 7. Physiological Mediation of Attitude Maintenance, Formation, and Change.- Attitudes and Psychophysiology.- Attitude Formation and Psychophysiology.- Attitude Change and Psychophysiology.- III. Physiology and Social Behavior.- 8. Social Interaction and Psychophysiology.- Psychophysiological Activity and Psychotherapy.- Psychophysiological Activity, Coronary-Prone Personality, and Social Interactions.- Psychophysiological Activity and Interpersonal Disagreement.- The Experimental Approach: Conformity as a Deceptive Act.- The Correlational Approach: A Study on Psychophysiological Traits and Social Behavior Patterns.- 9. Cognition, Arousal, and Aggression.- Constructs of Arousal, Frustration, Cognition, and Aggression.- Arousal, Cognition, and Anger.- Anger and Aggression.- Effects of Additional Arousal Sources on Anger and Aggression.- Aggression Catharsis.- Conclusions.- 10. Social Processes, Biology, and Disease.- Levels of Organization.- Explanation of Social-Biological Relations.- Conclusions.- Author Index.