These seven original essays by noted behavioral scientists were prepared for a symposium held at Eridale College (University of Toronto), and concern the causes, functions, and dysfunctions of human affective communication. The empirical findings and theoretical statements in the essays provide a framework for development of a psychological approach to the affective communication problems. Topics of the essays are: sex differences in development of affective relationships in rhesus monkeys, methodological and theoretical problems in research on behavioral development, the development of skill in using language-like symbolic systems in young chimpanzees and deaf children, nonlinguistic affective communication in young rodents and dogs, and the affective response of young adults to aesthetic stimuli and to machines. (Author/PK)