Moving Beyond Self-Interest

Stephanie L. Brown is Associate Professor in the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is also a faculty member at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Her scholarly work involves discovering mechanisms that link social behavior to physical health.R. Michael Brown is Professor Emeritus at Pacific Lutheran University. He is co-creator (with Stephanie Brown) of Selective Investment Theory. He is also co-author (with biologist Paul Cook) of the first interdisciplinary introductory psychology text to utilize evolution and development as integrative themes.LLouis A. Penner is a social psychologist and Professor of Oncology at the Karmanos Cancer Institute at Wayne State University. He studies psychosocial aspects of medical care, with a particular focus on health disparities. One important part of his research program is studying ways to help parents and children cope with the stresses of pediatric cancer. The goal of this research is to reduce the amount of distress that children and their parents experience during cancer treatments. This work is supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute.

• Part I: Introduction ; 1. Background and Historical Perspective ; R. Michael Brown, Louis A. Penner, & Stephanie L. Brown ; Part II: Foundations of Caregiving ; 2. How Altruistic by Nature? ; Dennis L. Krebs ; 3. Adult Attachment and Caregiving: Individual Differences in Providing a Safe Haven and Secure Base to Others ; Mario Mikiluncer & Phillip R. Shaver ; 4. Mechanisms, Mediators, and Adaptive Consequences of Caregiving ; Stephen W. Porges & C. Sue Carter ; Part III: The Neuroscience of Caregiving Motivation ; 5. A Model of Human Caregiving Motivation ; Stephanie L. Brown, R. Michael Brown, and Stephanie Preston ; 6. Neural Circuits Regulating Maternal Behavior: Implications for Understanding the Neural Basis of Social Cooperation and Competition ; Michael Numan ; 7. Neuroscience of Empathic Responding ; Jean Decety ; 8. Parental and Romantic Attachment Systems: Neural Circuits, Genes, and Experiential Contributions to Interpersonal Engagement ; James E. Swain ; Part IV: The Psychology of Caregiving Motivation ; 9. Parental Investment in Caregiving Relationships ; Daphne B. Bugental, David A. Beaulieu, & Randy Corpuz ; 10. The Role of Empathic Emotions in Caregiving: Caring for Pediatric Cancer Patients ; Louis A, Penner, Felicity W. K. Harper, & Terrance L. Albrecht ; 11. The Costs and Benefits of Informal Caregiving ; Richard Schulz & Joan K. Monin ; 12. Too Close for Comfort? Lessons from Excesses and Deficits of Compassion in Psychopathology ; June Gruber & Dacher Keltner ; 13. Egosystem and Ecosystem: Motivational Perspectives on Caregiving ; Jennifer Crocker & Amy Canevello ; 14. Caregiving in Adult Close Relationships ; Ellen Berscheid ; Part V: Implications for Economics, Political Science, and Social Policy ; 15. A New View of Utility: Maximizing <"Optimal Investment>" ; Dylan M. Smith, Stephanie L. Brown, & Mary L. Rigdon ; 16. Bringing Neuroscience into Political Science: The Caregiving System and Human Sociopolitical Evolution ; Judith S, Kullberg & J. David Singer ; 17. Motivation and the Delivery of Social Services ; Julian Le Grand ; Epilogue ; Stephanie L. Brown, R. Michael Brown, & Louis A. Penner

This is the most informed book in biological science I've read so far. Stephanie and Michael Brown, who have solid research backgrounds in evolutionary biology, are the driving forces behind this book which shows that we humans are primarily characterized by altruistic concern for the people close to us, and are much less concerned by competition.