Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Neurology and Interpersonal Behavior: The Basic Challenge for Neurosociology

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Handbook of Neurosociology

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

The theory of mind, as presently constituted, needs to be recast in a more sociological and evolutionary light. The process of intersubjectivity revolves around a series of interpersonal processes that can, I believe, be better conceptualized by extending G. H. Mead’s notion of role-taking. In this chapter, I emphasize that intersubjectivity is achieved through simultaneous and complex processes revolving around the interpersonal capacities of humans for (1) role-taking and role-making, (2) status-taking and status-making, (3) culture-taking and culture-making, (4) motive-taking and motive-making, (5) emotion-taking and emotion-making, and (6) attribution-taking and attribution-making. Some of these behavioral capacities are evident in extant primates, but during the course of hominin evolution, the neurology of the hominin brain was rewired to increase dramatically the ability to engage these six interpersonal processes. Sociality and group formation are not natural to an evolved ape; they are the outcomes of rewiring the neurology of hominin brains over the last eight million years. This rewiring makes humans more social than the great apes, but it is a sociality that is precarious because of the lack of bio-programmers (in the brain) for strong social ties and cohesive group structures. Strong ties and stable group structures for humans are mediated by these six evolved interpersonal capacities, and at best, they only assure that rates of sociality and group formation will be higher among humans than great apes. But, as is all too evident, social relations and groups are precarious constructions that are often breached and that equally often break apart—thus illustrating that social structures among humans are not held together by powerful bio-programmers, as is the case with most other mammals.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Baizer, J. S., Baker, J. F., Haas, K., & Lima, R. (2007). Neurochemical organization of the nucleus Paramedianus dorsalis in the Human. Brain Research, 1176, 45–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berger, J. (1988). Directions in expectation states research. In M. J. Webster & M. Foschi (Eds.), Status generalization: New theory and research. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, J., & Zelditch, M. (1985). Status, rewards, and influence. San Francisco: Josey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, J., Cohen, B. P., & Zelditch, M., Jr. (1972). Status characteristics and social interaction. American Sociological Review, 37, 241–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berger, J., Hamit Fisek, M., Norman, R. Z., & Zelditch, M., Jr. (1977). Status characteristics and social interaction: An expectation-states approach. New York: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, J., Norman, R. Z., Balkwell, J. W., & Smith, R. F. (1992). Status inconsistency in task situations: A test of four status processing principles. American Sociological Review, 57, 843–855.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bickerton, D. (2003). Symbol and structure: A comprehensive framework for language evolution. In M. S. Christiansen & S. Kirby (Eds.), Language evolution: The states of the art (pp. 77–93). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Brosnan, S. F., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2003). Fair refusal by capuchin monkeys. Nature, 425, 128–140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brosnan, S. F., Schiff, H. C., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2005). Tolerance for inequity may increase social closeness in chimpanzees. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 272, 253–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burke, P. J., & Stets, J. E. (2009). Identity theory. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2008). Do chimpanzees have a theory of mind: 30 years later. Trends in Cognitive Science, 12, 187–192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, C. (1987). Sympathy biography and sympathy margin. American Journal of Sociology, 93, 290–321.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, C. (1990). Misery loves company: Sympathy in everyday life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, R. (2004). Interaction ritual chains. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cosmides, L. (1989). The logic of social exchange: Has natural selection shaped how humans reason? Cognition, 31, 187–276.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (1992). Cognitive adaptations for social exchange. In J. H. Barkow, L. Cosmides, & J. Tooby (Eds.), The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture (pp. 19–136). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Damasio, A. (1994). Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. New York: G. P. Putman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Damasio, A., & Geschwind, N. (1984). The neural basis of language. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 7, 127–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, C. (1872). The expression of the emotions in man and animals. London: John Murray.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • de Waal, F. B. M. (1989). Food sharing and reciprocal obligations among chimpanzees. Journal of Human Evolution, 18, 433–459.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Waal, F. B. M. (1991). The chimpanzee’s sense of social regularity and its relation to the human sense of justice. American Behavioral Scientist, 34, 335–349.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Waal, F. B. M. (1996). Good natured: The origins of right and wrong in humans and other animals. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Waal, F. B. M. (2009). The age of empathy: Nature’s lessons for a kinder society. New York: Three Rivers Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eccles, J. C. (1989). Evolution of the brain: Creation of self. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P. (1984). Expression and the nature of emotion. In K. Scherer & P. Edman (Eds.), Approaches to emotion (pp. 319–343). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emde, R. N. (1962). Level of meaning for infant emotions: A biosocial view. In W. A. Collins (Ed.), Development of cognition, affect and social relations (pp. 1–37). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ettlinger, G. (1977). Cross-modal equivalence in non-human primates. In A. M. Schriver (Ed.), Behavioral primatology (Vol. 1). Hillsdale: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, R. A. (1930). The genetical theory of natural selection. Oxford: Clarendon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallup, G. G., Jr. (1970). Chimpanzees: Self-recognition. Science, 167, 86–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gallup, G. G., Jr. (1979). Self-recognition in chimpanzees and man: A developmental and comparative perspective. New York: Plenum Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallup, G. G., Jr. (1982). Self-awareness and the emergence of mind in primates. American Journal of Primatology, 2, 237–248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gazzaniga, M. S., & Smylie, C. S. (1990). Hemisphere mechanisms controlling voluntary and spontaneous mechanisms. Annual Review of Neurology, 13, 536–540.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gergely, G., & Csibra, G. (2006). Sylvia’s recipe: The role of imitation and pedagogy. In N. J. Enfield & S. C. Levinson (Eds.), The transmission of cultural knowledge (pp. 229–255). Oxford: Berg Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geschwind, N. (1965a). Disconnection syndromes in animals and man, part I. Brain, 88, 237–294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geschwind, N. (1965b). Disconnection syndromes in animals and man, part II. Brain, 88, 585–644.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geschwind, N. (1965c). Disconnection syndromes in animals and man. Brain, 88, 237–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction ritual. Garden City: Anchor Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. New York: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1983). The interaction order. American Sociological Review, 48, 1–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hare, B., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2001). Do chimpanzees know what conspecifics know? Animal Behavior, 61, 139–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hare, B., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2006). Chimpanzees deceive a human competitor by hiding. Cognition, 101, 495–514.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hochschild, A. R. (1979). Emotion work, feeling rules and social structure. American Journal of Sociology, 85, 551–575.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz, A. C. (2003). Do chimps ape? Or apes human? Imitation and intension in humans (Homo sapiens) and other animals. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 117, 325–336.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Itakura, S. (1996). An exploratory study of gaze-monitoring in non-human primates. Japanese Psychological Research, 38, 174–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jarvis, M. J., & Ettlinger, G. (1977). Cross-modal recognition in chimpanzees and monkeys. Neuropsychologia, 15, 499–506.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kemper, T. D., & Collins, R. (1990). Dimensions of microinteraction. American Journal of Sociology, 96, 32–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lawler, E. J. (2001). An affect theory of social exchange. American Journal of Sociology, 107, 321–352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lawler, E. J., Thye, S., & Yoon, J. (2009). Social commitments in a depersonalized world. New York: Russell Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leslie, K. R., Johnson-Frey, S. H., & Grafton, S. T. (2004). Functional imaging of face and hand imitation: Towards a motor theory of empathy. NeuroImage, 21, 601–607.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loewenstein, G., Rick, S., & Cohen, J. (2008). Neuroeconomics. Annual Reviews, 59, 647–672.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maryanski, A., & Turner, J. H. (1992). The social cage: Human nature and the evolution of society. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCall, G. P., & Simmons, J. L. (1978). Identities and interactions. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self, and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, G. H. (1938). Philosophy of the act. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Menzel, E. W. (1971). Communication about the environment in a group of young chimpanzees. Folia Primatologica, 15, 220–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parr, L. A., Waller, B. M., & Fugate, J. (2005). Emotional communication in primates: Implications for neurobiology. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 15, 716–720.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Passingham, R. E. (1973). Anatomical differences between the Neo-cortex of man and the other primates. Brain Behavioral Evolution, 7, 337–359.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Passingham, R. E. (1975). Changes in the size and organisation of the brain in man and his ancestors. Brain and Behavior Evolution, 11, 73–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Passingham, R. E. (1982). The human primate. Oxford: Freeman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Povinelli, D. J. (2000). Folk physics for apes: The chimpanzee’s theory of how the world works. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Premack, D., & Woodruff, G. (1978). Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind. Behavior and Brain Science, 1, 515–526.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raghanti, M. A., Stimpson, C. D., Marchiewicz, J. L., et al. (2008). Differences in cortical serotonergic innervation among humans, chimpanzees, and macaque monkeys: A comparative study. Cerebral Cortex, 18, 584–597.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rilling, J. K., & Insel, T. R. (1999). The primate neocortex in comparative perspective using magnetic resonance imaging. Journal of Human Evolution, 42, 505–533.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rizzolattti, G., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., & Gallese, V. (2002). From mirror neurons to imitation: Facts and speculations. In W. Prinz & A. N. Meltzoff (Eds.), The imitative mind: Development, evolution and brain bases (pp. 247–266). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Rumbaugh, D., & Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S. (1990). Chimpanzees: Competencies for language and numbers. In W. Stebbins & M. Berkley (Eds.), Comparative perception (Vol. 2). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Savage-Rumbaugh, S., & Lewin, R. (1994). Kanzi: The ape at the brink of the human mind. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Savage-Rumbaugh, S., Seveik, R., & Hopkins, W. (1988). Symbolic cross-model transfer in two species. Child Development, 59, 617–625.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Savage-Rumbaugh, S., Murphy, J., Seveik, J., Brakke, K., Williams, S. L., & Rumbaugh, D. (1993). Language comprehension in the ape and child (Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 58). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saxe, R., et al. (2006). Reading minds versus following rules: Dissociating theory of mind and executive control in the brain. Social Neuroscience, 1, 284–298.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schutz, A. (1967 [1932]). The phenomenology of the social world. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Semendeferi, K., Lu, A., Schenker, N., & Damasio, H. (2002). Humans and great apes share a large frontal cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 5, 272–276.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sherwood, C. C. (2007). The evolution of neuron types and cortical histology in apes and humans. In T. M. Preuss & J. H. Kaas (Eds.), Evolution of nervous systems 4: The evolution of primate nervous systems (pp. 355–378). Oxford: Academic.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Sherwood, C. C., Holloway, R. L., Erwin, J. M., & Hoff, P. R. (2004). Cortical orofacial motor representation in old world monkeys, great apes and humans. Brain Behavior and Evolution, 63, 82–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sherwood, C. C., Holloway, R. L., Semendeferi, K., & Hoff, P. R. (2005). Is prefrontal white matter enlargement a human evolutionary specialization? Nature Neuroscience, 8, 537–538.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sherwood, C. C., Subiaul, F., Tadeusz, H., & Zawidzki, W. (2008). A natural history of the human mind: Tracing evolutionary changes in brain and cognition. Journal of Anatomy, 212, 426–454.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stephan, H. (1983). Evolutionary trends in limbic structures. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Review, 7, 367–374.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stephan, H., & Andy, O. J. (1969). Quantitative comparative neuroanatomy of primates: An attempt at phylogenetic interpretation. Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 167, 370–387.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stephan, H., & Andy, O. J. (1977). Quantitative comparison of the amygdala in insectivores and primates. Acta Antomica, 98, 130–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stephan, H. F., & Baron, B. (1981). New and revised data on volumes of brain structures in insectivores and primates. Folia Primatoligica, 35, 1–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stephan, H., Baron, G., & Frahm, H. (1988). Comparative size of brains and brain components. In H. Steklis & J. Erwin (Eds.), Neurosciences (Vol. 4). New York: Alan Liss.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stryker, S. (1980). Symbolic interactionism: A structural version. Menlo Park: Benjamin-Cummings.

    Google Scholar 

  • Subiaul, F. (2007). The imitation faculty in monkeys: Evaluating its features, distribution, and evolution. Journal of Anthropological Science, 85, 35–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tomonaga, M. (1999). Attending to the others’ attention in Macaques’ joint attention or not? Primate Research, 15, 425.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, R. H. (1962). Role-taking: Processes versus conformity. In A. Rose (Ed.), Human behavior and social processes (pp. 20–40). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, J. H. (2000). On the origins of human emotions: A sociological inquiry into the evolution of human affect. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, J. H. (2002). Face to face: Toward a theory of interpersonal behavior. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, J. H. (2008). Human emotions: A sociological theory. Oxford: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, J. H. (2010). Theoretical principles of sociology (Microdynamics, Vol. 2). New York: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, J. H., & Maryanski, A. (2008). On the origins of societies by natural selection. Boulder: Paradigm Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. (1968 [1922]). Economy and society. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiner, B. (1986). An attribution theory of motivation and emotion. New York: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of California, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA

    Jonathan H. Turner

Authors
  1. Jonathan H. Turner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jonathan H. Turner .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA

    David D. Franks

  2. Department of Sociology, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA

    Jonathan H. Turner

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Turner, J.H. (2013). Neurology and Interpersonal Behavior: The Basic Challenge for Neurosociology. 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_10

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation