At 11:42 PM -0400 9/4/99, Beth Benoit wrote:
>at similar locations in America. She found that Parisian children
>and adolescents
>touch each other (stroking arms, putting arms on each others' shoulders, etc.)
>much more frequently than do Americans of the same age. She found American
>adolescents were much more likely to perform "self-stim" behaviors such as
>flipping their hair (ah, America! there's one I'd like to see die
>an early death),
>cracking knuckles and jiggling their heels. She discussed how we
>give male children
>the message that it is NOT okay to touch others (particularly other
>males), but it
>IS okay, essentially, to be aggressive "if necessary."
It seems the most parsimonious explanation for this is that we teach
both social habits: touching and aggression. The question is
whether the teaching or learning, or imitating of one (don't touch)
has an additional causal path to aggression (perhaps through some of
the physiological variables Field has measured in the past).
This seems a fascinating hypothesis. But as you note, the data in
this study are only correlational.
This is all complicated by the fact that "touching" in adolescents
and adults is much more complicated than touching in premies. Touch
can be used as a form of power assertion (boss putting hand on
subordinate's shoulder), can be perceived as aggression (don't you
touch me!) or can be comforting. Field's hypothesis may need to be
modified to take account of different kinds" of touch. The examples
given from the Parisian playground already do this, since all the
cited touch incidents are positively valenced.
Just a few thoughts.
-Chuck
- Chuck Huff Psychology Department
- Associate Professor St.Olaf College
- Tutor in the Paracollege 1520 St. Olaf Avenue
- 507.646.3169 Fax: 646.3774 Northfield, MN 55057-1098
- [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.stolaf.edu/people/huff/
