Our Humanity

Neurobiological research highlights the significance of our physical existence as feeling, conscious, and purposeful beings. Antonio Damasio describes the core self as a witness to one’s own purposeful existence—a possible location for the notion of human dignity. In contrast to the notion of the isolated individual, Damasio defines the self as a conductor created by an orchestra. Daniel Siegel sees the self as a composite entity determined by the flow of information and energy among internal and external events and responses. He also points out the significance of Attachment theory is revealing our need, like other primates, of a secure base; grounded in social relationships with others.

Secure base effect in former shelter dogs and other family dogs: Strangers do not provide security in a problem-solving task

Domestic dogs display behavioural patterns towards their owners that fulfil the four criteria of attachment. As such, they use their owners as a secure base, exploring the environment and manipulating objects more when accompanied by their owners than when alone. Although there are some indications that owners serve as a better secure base than other human beings, the evidence regarding a strong owner-stranger differentiation in a manipulative context is not straightforward. In the present study, we conducted two experiments in which pet dogs were tested in an object-manipulation task in the presence of the owner and of a stranger, varying how the human partner would behave (i.e. remaining silent or encouraging the dog, Experiment 1), and when alone (Experiment 2). Further, to gain a better insight into the mechanisms behind a potential owner-stranger differentiation, we investigated the effect of dogs’ previous life history (i.e. having lived in a shelter or having lived in the same household since puppyhood). Overall, we found that strangers do not provide a secure base effect and that former shelter dogs show a stronger owner-stranger differentiation than other family dogs. As former shelter dogs show more behavioural signs correlated with anxiety towards the novel environment and the stranger, we concluded that having been re-homed does not necessarily affect the likelihood of forming a secure bond with the new owner but might have an impact on how dogs interact with novel stimuli, including unfamiliar humans. These results confirm the owner’s unique role in providing security to their dogs and have practical implications for the bond formation in pet dogs with a past in a shelter.

Developmental Perspectives on Parenting

This chapter discusses two leading middle-level theories within evolutionary psychology, which attempt to explain both how and why parenting influences child development across the life span. First, it presents an overview of one of the most influential evolutionary theories in developmental psychology: John Bowlby’s attachment theory. Attachment theory revolutionized the way people understand the nature of the parent–child bond, framing the parent as not just a provider of physical needs but also as a secure base for emotional and psychological needs. These early-life bonds between the caregiver and infant are further proposed to form the basis for relationship attachments across the life span. Next, the chapter addresses how competing strategies toward resource allocation can influence individual differences in parental investment and sensitivity. According to life history theory, differences in the caregiving environment, in turn, promote the formation of distinct reproductive strategies, resulting in behavioral, social, and physiological differences across child development.

POLLY HILL: CROSSING AND CONTESTING THE BOUNDARIES OF ANTHROPOLOGY, ECONOMICS, AFRICAN STUDIES, AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDIES

Polly Hill spent her long, productive, and at times controversial career crossing and contesting disciplinary boundaries. She graduated in economics at Cambridge, but her doctorate was in social anthropology—with economist Joan Robinson as dissertation supervisor. Her thirteen years at the University of Ghana were initially in economics, then in African studies, and her readership at Cambridge was in Commonwealth studies. As a woman in several male-dominated academic disciplines without a secure base in any (and with distinctive, unorthodox opinions in each), she never obtained a tenure-track appointment despite ten books and fifty scholarly articles. Her books drew attention to the underrecognized agency of indigenous entrepreneurs while her Development Economics on Trial: The Anthropological Case for the Prosecution (1986) critiqued a discipline, disciplinary boundaries, and outside experts, both mainstream and radical.

Attachment Security

This chapter provides an overview of the construct of attachment security and describes the threat to this security that may arise in response to the diagnosis or progression of advanced disease. The heightened mortality salience that occurs in this context activates the attachment system, and increased dependency and caregiving needs frequently require an adjustment or renegotiation of attachment security. Attachment security protects from death anxiety and other forms of distress, and so the renegotiation of attachment relationships is often an urgent task that is needed to maintain or restore emotional equilibrium. This chapter explains the central role of attachment security in the Managing Cancer and Living Meaningfully (CALM) intervention, in which the therapeutic relationship can provide a secure base to process distressing thoughts and feelings and to face the challenges that inevitably occur.