Effects of social interaction on well-being: development aspects.

The scientific need for nonhuman primates that are born and raised in captivity seems certain to increase and with it, the concern for managing the social development of individual animals so as to maximize their utility throughout a potentially long career. This practical objective is not only compatible with a concern for psychological well-being, but presupposes similar aims and criteria. For both concerns the most reliable guidelines are derived from basic research. The data available indicate that primate social development is directional, proceeding from extreme dependence on care-givers initially (subserved by mother-directed behaviors) toward relative autonomy and adult competence (dominated by other-directed behaviors). Individuals are not passive recipients at any point in this process, rather they are active participants in their development, engaged with their surroundings and responding selectively to what the environment affords. From this standpoint, developmental effects are the outcome of transactions with the environment. They are emergent phenomena, neither wholly independent of environmental influences, nor completely determined by them. It follows that the long-range utility and well-being of captive animals will be served well if they are able to select those with whom they will interact and modes of interaction that are appropriate to their level of development and current motivational state. This can generally be accomplished by permitting individuals to develop, at least through weaning, in the company of their biologic mothers within an approximation of a species-normal social group. When such latitude is impossible, the social environment should be arranged with the individuals' developmental levels as a primary concern.