The Development of Social Engagement, edited by Peter J. Marshall and Nathan A. Fox, brings together some of the latest research on social engagement processes across a range of life stages and species. The opening chapters provide overviews of cutting-edge research on social engagement in areas such as temperament, face processing, joint attention, language development, and early social cognition in humans. Subsequent chapters address questions related to biological determinants of social systems, play, and maternal behavior across a variety of species, as well as evolutionary issues associated with social engagement. Finally, a number of chapters examine the application of rigorous biologically focused research paradigms to the study of atypical social engagement in children. Atypical social engagement is framed in terms of disorders such as autism and Williams Syndrome, as well as in the effects of adverse early rearing environments such as institutions. This volume will be a valuable guide for those interested in a neurobiological approach to the study of social development. It provides an introduction to current research directions in this rapidly expanding field for both student and professional researchers in developmental psychology, comparative psychology, and developmental psychopathology.

Peter J. Marshall is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Temple University. His research interests include temperament, attachment, and the utility of electrophysical measures of nervous system functioning in research on social, emotional, and cognitive development in infancy and early childhood.LNathan A. Fox is Professor of Human Development at the University of Maryland, College Park. His interests mainly concern the biological bases of individual differences in infant temperament and the role of early experience as it affects brain and behavior in the realm of social and emotional competencies.