Touch

Question 1

What is touch?

Answer 1

any body to body contact

Question 2

scientific experiment about touch

Answer 2

• monkey went to the cloth mother rather than the mother with the milk
• contact = soothing

Question 3

messages conveyed by touch (7)

Answer 3

• Greeting
• Hostility
• Reassurance
• Instruction
• Liking
• Power
• Sexuality

Question 4

The Meaning of Touch is Affected By what?

Answer 4

• What part of the body is touched
• What part of the other person’s body touched the self
• How long the touch lasts
• How much pressure is used
• Whether there is movement after contact has been made
• Whether anyone else is present
• If others are present, who they are
• The situation
• The relationship between the persons involved

Question 5

Heslin’s Taxonomy of Touch

Five Situations/Relations Involving Touch

Answer 5

1) Functional/professional
• Touch treats the decoder (the touchee) as an object
• Preforming a professional function on you
• The least intimate

2) Social/polite
• Usually do in greetings, to greet other people
o High-five
o Shake hands

3) Friendship/warmth
• Want to convey their friendship and their liking
• Differences between sexes for how they use this/portray this
• Issues of context
o More likely in social situations (if alone, may be confused with sexual tension)

4) love/intimacy
• People in a romantic relationship
• People more inclined to enact in private
• Could also be a parent holding a small child

5) sexual arousal

Question 6

functional/professional

Answer 6

• Touch treats the decoder (the touchee) as an object
• Preforming a professional function on you
• The least intimate

Question 7

social/polite

Answer 7

• Usually do in greetings, to greet other people
o High-five
o Shake hands

Question 8

friendship/warmth

Answer 8

• Want to convey their friendship and their liking
• Differences between sexes for how they use this/portray this
• Issues of context
o More likely in social situations (if alone, may be confused with sexual tension)

Question 9

love/intimacy

Answer 9

• People in a romantic relationship
• People more inclined to enact in private
• Could also be a parent holding a small child

Question 10

sexual arousal

Answer 10

self explanatory

Question 11

Culture and Touch

Answer 11

• Contact vs. noncontact cultures
• Arabs > Americans
• Costa Ricans > Americans
• Italian & Greek > British, Dutch, French
• Different meanings in different cultures (e.g. same sex touch)

Question 12

sex differences

Answer 12

A. Intimate Touch

• Gerarard’s golden standard touch chart

Question 13

Reactions to intimate touch 2 studies (1975/1976)

Answer 13

• Nguyen et al. (1975)
• Men and women agree on what kind of touch signifies sexual desire
• They differ in their reactions
• Men: sexual touch (+)
• Women: sexual touch (-)
• Presumably not married
• Nguyen et al. (1976)
• The relationship btw sexual touch and men’s (+) reactions was very weak
• Women: sexual touch (+)
• This sample was married

Question 14

Sex Difference and Marital Status, Controlling for Age

Answer 14

• 305 adults aged 18-69
• survey measure of reactions to touch to different body regions from an intimate partner
• touch to nonintimate body regions: men’s reactions = positive than women’s
• touch to intimate body regions: men’s reactions more positive than women’s
• unmarried men responded more positively to intimate touch than married men did
• pattern holds even after statistically controlling for age

Question 15

M  F vs. F  M

Answer 15

• Observation of 4500 dyads in public
• M  F = M  M touch
• M initiate more touches but F reciprocate so M = F
• F may touch less earlier and more later in relationship development

Question 16

Relational Stage and Touch

Answer 16

• Men initiate more touch in casual romantic relationships
• Women initiate more touch in married relationships
• In young (< 20 years) couples, men initiate more touch
• In older couples (20s, 30s, 40s) women initiate more touch and men touched rarely

Question 17

M-F Differences in Touch in Sports

Answer 17

• College softball & baseball teams observed
• Males performed more hand  other body part touch (e.g. butt slap, head shake)
• Females performed more hand  hand touches (e.g. low five, hand slap, hand pile, potato fists, glove tap, etc.)
• Females performed more intimate touch (e.g. team hug)
• M: touch mostly after (+) events
• F: touch after both (-) and (+) game events

Question 18

personality and touch: need for touch

Answer 18

• “need for touch” = preference for extraction and utilization of information obtained through the haptic system

Question 19

two dimensions of need for touch

Answer 19

o INSTRUMENTAL: outcome-directed issues associated with a purchasing goal
o AUTOTELIC: touch as an end in and of itself; hedonic-oriented response seeking fun, arousal, sensory stimulation, and enjoyment

Question 20

examples of measurement types for need for touch

Answer 20

o (I) The only way to make sure a product is worth buying is to actually touch it
o (I) I place more trust in products that can be touched before purchase
o (A) I like to touch products even if I have no intention of buying them
o (A) Touching products can be fun
 instrumental need for touch is negatively associated with making purchases over the internet or by phone from a catalog
 autotelic need for touch is positively associated with impulse buying

Question 21

Extraverts are activated by touch

Answer 21

• personality inventory
• mechanical tactile stimulation to the index finger and 5th finger of subjects
• extraversion was positively correlated with brain activation in the somatosensory cortex
• especially true for touch to Left hand (activated R hemisphere)
• R hemisphere processes social information

Question 22

decoding: the effects of touch on others

Answer 22

• In the right setting, it can make people feel positive about the toucher
• it can help the recipient self-disclose and talk about him/herself
• people comply with requests more when lightly touched

Question 23

purchasing and spending

Answer 23

• cocktail waitress touched near shoulder of patron for 3-4 sec (or not)
• people touched ordered more drinks during stay
• servers touch restaurant patrons on shoulder (or not)
• people who were touched left larger tips

Question 24

Touch and psychological well-being (2013)

Answer 24

• dating couples
• electronic diary 4x a day for 1 week on their touch
• touched from partner led to better mood in decoder
• touch led to better mood (act of touching-encoder-better mood)
• receiving touch during 1 week led to better psychological well-being 6 months later on

Question 25

mirror neurons for touch?

Answer 25

- confederate touch the hand of participants - participants watch the confederate touch her own hand - magnetoencephalography - same part of brain is activated when being touched or observing others being touched

Question 26

perceptions of touchers: a person who initiates touch is seen as having: (3)

Answer 26

- the status that gives permission to touch - the courage and initiative to exercise that status - a warm personality (i.e. friendly)

Question 27

*impressions of people who touch* important

Answer 27

- librarians touched/didn't touch patrons checking out books - palm of hand - approached to fill out survey - subjects who were touched rated clerk more favorably than those who were not touched - only 57% of the touched subjects noticed the touch

Question 28

positive evaluation of touchers

Answer 28

- teachers verbally describe to students how to take pulse - or actually showed them by touching their wrist - cover story: heart rate important factor in learning - watch video of same teacher giving a lecture - students touched by the teacher in the video gave her higher ratings (M=4.11) than those in the no touch condition (M=3.85) on 1-5 scale

Question 29

perceptions of touch from family members

Answer 29

- survey 204 adults - rate appropriateness of different parent-child touches (e.g. sit on lap, quick kiss on lips, give child bath) - very clear norms emerged - higher approval for mother vs. father for lap sitting, kiss, and bathing - mothers are judged to have more freedom to touch their kids

Question 30

*reactions to touch*

Answer 30

-variation in reactions to touch is best explained by the *degree of congruence between the intimacy of the touch and the intimacy of the relationship*

Question 31

interactive aspects of touch (5)

Answer 31

- decreased arousal (1972) - growth and development: brain development (1996) and weight gain (1986) - pain reduction (1997): GATE THEORY-nerves sense pain, pain gate can be shut down by pressure or cold (2006)- ex: squeeze hand - attentiveness: autistic children (1996); ADD children: massaged had higher attentiveness - improved mood: adolescent psychiatric patients (bulimia)>massage>better mood (Tiffany Field)

Question 32

touch and maternal depression (2004)

Answer 32

- during 5 minute play period depressed mothers touch their infants in a more controlling, restraining way - infants of depressed mothers engage in more self-touching - infant self-touching is a self-comforting behavior to compensate for lack of positive touch from mother

Question 33

touch and relationship development (encoding)

Answer 33

- 154 opp. sex couples waiting in line at movie or zoo - touch recorded on body charts - couples then approached to fill out survey - hand to hand: 33% initial stage, 61% intermediate, 35% stable - touch to waist: 8% initial, 20% intermediate, 3% stable

Question 34

what are TIE signs?

Answer 34

- a way to say I'm taken ex: wedding ring, for public consumption, intermediate stage may be a tie sign - stable > don't need to do that anymore-you know where you're at who cares if everyone else knows what they think