title: A strategy approach to the study of primate dominance behaviour.
abstract: It is argued that the concept of social dominance is likely to be a useful explanatory principle in a theory of primate social behaviour. This argument depends on switching from a concern with the structure of primate hierarchies to looking at the process of attaining/ maintaining a given rank position in the hierarchy; and on a switch from the exclusive focusing on dyadic interactions to the inclusion of multi-animal interactions in studies of dominance behaviour. This produces what in this paper is termed the 'strategy approach' to the study of primate dominance behaviour. Its potential explanatory utility lies in its prediction of change in affiliative relationships in the social group.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling Great Britain.
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Leonard