----- Original Message ----- From: Beth Benoit To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2010 9:01 PM Subject: [tips] "Touch-bonded teams" and other evidence on touching
An interesting article in last week's New York Times (I get it by mail, so they occasionally arrive very late) about other types of nonverbal communication than just facial expressions and folded arms: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/health/23mind.html This kind of article - particularly with the photos which can be put into PowerPoint slides - can make class discussions more interesting. Beth Benoit This kind of article probably belongs in the Journal of Touchy Feely.(No pun intended) What this article points out to me is that if one looks far enough for some meaningful correlation.One will eventually find it.It is true that there are different substrates of non -verbal communication.This type of observation has been pointed out by Edward T.Hall in works like THE HIDDEN DIMENSION and SILENT LANGUAGE and the Touch Paradigm has been noted cross-culturally.Its meaningful import may be due to the fact that our skin is the largest of all our senses.But to think that basketball touches and all those other touch-correlated activities like volunteering are a direct result of touching or a hi-fi is really a stretch for my scientific imagination.This is a typical ex-post facto paradigm and besides there are no control groups in Timbuctu. Another problem is that our U.S culture is not a touch oriented society and interperonal physical distancing is great.Granting that some cultures are touch cultures or close contact cltures like Italy,France,Middle-East and some others,the most frequent advice in the U.S with varying repercussions is DO NOT TOUCH.Most of what we see as touch in the U.S could be construed as "ritualized contact" as used by Desmond Morris and the other ethologists. Michael "omnicentric" Sylvester,PhD Daytona Beach,Florida --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=1029 or send a blank email to leave-1029-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
