As couples head into the spring wedding season, a new book dedicated to UC Davis' expert on romantic love explores the psychological underpinnings of their coupledom.

In a new book, "Dynamics of Romantic Love: Attachment, Caregiving and Sex," edited by Mario Mikulincer and Gail Goodman, some of the nation's top experts provide the latest thinking on "adult attachment theory," which explains how adults form intimate bonds similar to the ones formed by infants with their mothers.

The editors dedicate the book to Phillip Shaver, a UC Davis psychology professor, in celebration of his 60th birthday and his appointment as a distinguished professor. Co-editor Goodman, who is also a UC Davis professor, is Shaver's wife.

"Everyone has had more and less successful relationships and has enjoyed being loved, and has suffered from inevitable attachment injuries," explains Shaver, who has spent 20 years studying how humans need to love and be loved and what impedes them. He is co-editor of the "Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research and Clinical Application."

Several of the chapter authors discuss how romantic love involves not just attachment but also caregiving, a form of behavior that resembles the parental side of parent-child relationships. Other authors analyze the role of sexual motives and behavior in romantic relationships. When such relationships function well, they provide safe havens from a stressful world and secure bases from which individuals venture forth into society. The sexual component helps bind the partners together (and, of course, often yields children who will become the next generation of lovers).

In the final essay in the book, Shaver writes: "In my opinion, there is no theory of personality, emotions, social relationships, or psychological development that holds much more than a flickering candle to actual experience." But he hopes his and his colleagues' work will further illuminate one of humankind's most intense and central experiences.