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174 EFFECTS OF EARLY MALTREATMENT AND STRESSdescribing the role of OT and AVP during development. We then will discusscurrent knowledge of possible developmental actions of OT and AVP, especiallyas these may be related to psychopathologies in later life.Social Behaviors in the Context of Social SystemsSocial behaviors by definition involve interactions between two or more individuals.These can be classified as either agonistic (aggressive or defensive) oraffiliative (prosocial). Positive social behaviors are less commonly studied, butin general require at a minimum mutual willingness to congregate, remain together,and in some cases engage in selective social behaviors, indicative of socialbonds.Selective behaviors, such as the formation of a pair bond, are directed toward specificindividuals and therefore require “social memory”—the ability to recognize otherindividual animals. These behaviors differ from nonselective or indiscriminate socialbehaviors, in which the exact identity of the other individual is less relevant—for instance, mating in a species in which the animals do not form a pair bond.Selective social interactions are of particular importance to human behavior andthe behavior of animals that form social bonds. Social behaviors, including socialbonds and other forms of social support facilitate both the survival of the individual,as well as reproduction—necessary in turn for genetic survival. In humans,as in other species, social bonds can provide a sense of safety, reduce anxiety,and may influence physical and mental health. In addition, selective social behaviorsand social bonds are often critical to long-lasting relationships.In mammals, the best studied and most enduring relationships, defined by selectivesocial behaviors and in some cases by emotional responses, are betweenmothers and infants or within breeding pairs (sometimes termed pair-bonds).However, selective social bonds are rare, especially among mammals. Adult socialbonds, usually between two adults of the opposite sex, are most clearly identifiedin highly social species, sometimes termed “monogamous.” However, theuse of this term must be understood in context. In biology, one method for categorizingspecies is based on mating systems, which are characterized by the species-typicalnumber of sexual partners, and often focused on male reproductivebehavior. The most common mating system in mammals is polygamy (many mates)or more specifically polygyny (many female mates). The less common alternativeis monogamy (one mate; Kleiman, 1977), whereas polyandry (many male mates) israrest. Complicating this story is the fact that it is now well-established that sexualexclusivity is not necessarily a reliable trait of species that live in pairs. For thisreason it has become common to use the term “social monogamy” to refer to thesocial system or social organization of species that form pair bonds. In the ab-