Touch and Positive Psychology

PHOTO BY: ENERGYY ON ISTOCK

Human connection is

the most vital

aspect of our existence,

without the sweet touch

of another being

we are lonely stars 

in an empty space

waiting to shine gloriously.

-Joe Straynge

I knew love before I took my first breath in this life. I am told that my father could not wait to meet me. One of my first memories is walking with my dad, him holding my hand. Little did I know that this large, white, small-town soldier walking through the streets in a northwestern town in the United States at the end of the Vietnam War received disrespectful comments and disgusted stares because he held the hand of a “chink” child. I did not know this because I felt love and safety through the hand of my dad. The world was full of wonder, and I was wonderful. His touch told me so. 

 Fast forward several decades, and my professional world focused on the other end of the touch spectrum. As a therapist for adults and children who experienced sexual violence, I saw the darker side of human contact. Touch can split our flesh as it rips our soul and sucks away hope. I also know that touch can repair the rips, fill them with gold, and breathe hope back into us. I became very aware of the dialectical power of touch. I went back to school to study sex education and sex therapy, and at about the same time, I started reading about positive psychology. It fit with my overall shift professionally from the dysfunctional, response-focused, victim-support efforts to the proactive, prevention-focused, healthy relationships and positive-sexuality concentration. 

 It is with great privilege that I got to formally study applied positive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania (MAPP, C’22). When I heard about the requirement to complete a capstone project, it seemed natural that I wanted to study touch, yet positive psychology did not embrace touch as a means to thriving or well-being. The empirical evidence of the incredible power of touch to both ameliorate the negative and to bolster the positive is undeniable. My capstone is a call for future touch-related empirical research and positive interventions in the field of positive psychology.  

When Touch is Missing

  The cloak that covers us is the oldest, largest, and most sensitive organ of our body, and after the brain, the most important organ system (Montague, 1971). Our skin is the “only one of the five senses essential to human survival” (Floyd, 2014, p. 384). So significant is touch to human existence that Michelangelo rightly proclaimed, “To touch is to give life.” 

 We suffer when touch is missing. The infamous Harlow monkey studies, where infant rhesus monkeys were separated from their mothers, showed that bodily contact that supports affectionate needs may be the most important variable for survival and thriving (Harlow & Zimmerman, 1959). 

 Unfortunately, we have examples of what happens to humans when touch is missing. From the orphanages in Romania to boys and girls who were raised in closets and cages (Perry & Szalavitz, 2006), a lack of interactions and touch disrupts brain development, which lead to academic struggles, difficulties in social adjustment, and disruption to physical development (Bruce et al., 2009; Egeland et al., 1983; Field, 1994). Without touch—motor skills, coordination, speech, and language issues; compromised sleep and attention; social and relational delays; emotional regulation deficits; and inability for empathy and compassion—are common. 

 Affection deprivation can occur at any age. Adults not only want touch, they need it. The absence of positive human touch for adults has both a somatic and emotional impact. Touch deprivation can increase loneliness, stress, depression, anxiety, alexithymia (problems with feeling emotions), avoidant attachment styles, disordered personality, sleep disturbance, and secondary immune disorders (Floyd, 2014).

Touch and Well-being

 Touch has healing powers. Preterm infants who received massages gained more weight, performed better on mental and motor scales, had better parent-infant interactions, were more active with less time sleeping, and were released from the hospital earlier than the infants who did not have such massage treatments (Fields et al., 1987; Fields et al., 1986; Scafidi et al., 1993; Scafidi et al., 1990; Scafidi et al., 1986). Preterm, cocaine-exposed babies and those exposed to HIV also benefit from massage therapy (Scafidi & Field, 1996; Wheeden et al., 1993). On the other end of the spectrum of life, research shows touch for elderly nursing care clients is associated with benefits in their higher-order needs like love and belonging, social connection, and a positive self-esteem (Gleeson & Timmins, 2004). 

 Touch also impacts physical and psychological well-being. Consensual touch reduces physical pain, helps us deal with emotional pain (Sahi et al., 2021), instills trust, spreads goodwill, impacts performance (Kraus et al., 2010), reduces fear, increases care giving (Inagaki et al., 2012), and increases positive emotions (Murphy et al., 2018).

Touch and Positive Psychology

 The positive practice of touch is missing from the field of positive psychology, even though research shows that touch can positively impact physiology, emotions, cognition, and development. Touch sets in motion biological processes that stimulate neurotransmitters that lower the stress response and increase connection to self and others. Touch targets systems of affect, physiology, and relationships. 

 Just because touch can be used to harm others and some may abuse its powers, we should not shy away from intentionally measuring and studying touch as it relates to and impacts human thriving. As individuals, we can explore the power of touch on our own well-being. Explore tactile pleasure. Set and enforce personal boundaries. Investigate the role of platonic touch in daily relationships. As a field, we must utilize scientific research and scholarship to learn how touch impacts growth, character, drive, mastery, well-being, and flourishing. The next steps will be to develop positive interventions to harness human touch for good. I look forward to working on this; I hope you will join me. 

References

Bruce, J., Fisher, P. A., Pears, K. C., & Levine, S. (2009). Morning cortisol levels in preschool- aged foster children: Differential effects of maltreatment type. Developmental Psychobiology, 51(1), 14–23.

Egeland, B., Sroufe, A., & Erickson, M. (1983). The developmental consequence of different patterns of maltreatment. Child Abuse & Neglect, 7(4), 459–469.

Field, T. (1994). The effects of mother’s physical and emotional unavailability on emotion regulation. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59(2–3), 208– 227.

Field, T., Scafidi, F., & Schanberg, S. (1987). Massage of preterm newborns to improve growth and development. Pediatric Nursing, 13, 385–387.

Field, T., Schanberg, S.M, Scafidi, F., Bauer, C.R., Vega-Lahr, N., Garcia, R., Nystrom, J., & Kuhn, C.M. (1986). Tactile/kinesthetic stimulation effects on preterm neonates. Pediatrics, 77(5), 654–658.

Floyd, K. (2014). Relational and health correlates of affection deprivation. Western Journal of Communication, 78(4), 383–403. https://doi.org/10.1080/10570314.2014.927071

Gleeson, M., & Timmins, F. (2004). The use of touch to enhance nursing care of older person in long-term mental health care facilities. Journal of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, 11(5), 541–545. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2850.2004.00757.x

Harlow, H. F., & Zimmerman, R. R. (1959). Affectional responses in the infant monkey: Orphaned baby monkeys develop a strong and persistent attachment to inanimate surrogate mothers. Science, 130(3373), 421–432. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.130.3373.421

Inagaki, T. K., & Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). Neural correlates of giving support to a loved one. Psychosomatic Medicine, 74(1), 3–7. https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0b013e3182359335.

Kraus, M. W., Huang, C., & Keltner, D. (2010). Tactile communication, cooperation, and performance: An ethological study of the NBA. Emotion, 10(5), 745–749. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019382

Montagu, A. (1971). Touching: The human significance of the skin. Columbia University Press.

Murphy, M. L. M., Janicki-Deverts, D., & Cohen, S. (2018). Receiving a hug is associated with the attenuation of negative mood that occurs on days with interpersonal conflict. PLOS One, 13(10). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203522

Perry, B. D., & Szalavitz, M. (2006). The boy who was raised as a dog: What traumatized children can teach us about loss, love, and healing. Basic Books.

Sahi, R. S., Dieffenbach, M. C., Gan, S., Lee, M., Hazlett, L. I., Burns, S. M., Lieberman, M. D., Shamay-Tsoory, S. G., & Eisenberger (2021). The comfort in touch: Immediate and lasting effects of handholding on emotional pain. PLOS ONE, 16(2): e0246753. https://doi.org/10.137/journal.pone.0246753

Scafidi, F., & Field, T. (1996). Massage therapy improves behavior in neonates born to HIV positive mothers. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 21(6), 889–897. https://doi.org/ 10.1093/jpepsy/21.6.889

Scafidi, F., Field, T., & Schanberg, S. M. (1993). Factors that predict which preterm infants most from massage therapy. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 14(3), 176–180.

Wheeden, A., Scafidi, F., Field, T., Ironson, G., Valdeon, C., & Bandstra, E. (1993). Massage effects on cocaine-exposed preterm neonates. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 14, 318–22. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004703-199310000-00005

About the author | Dr. Kimberly Dickman (C’22) is an assistant professor at the Air Force Academy where she gets to help young, future leaders thrive in their personal and professional lives. She’s worked for the military for over 20 years as a civilian and spent 12 years in the sexual assault prevention and response field. Kimberly teaches classes in Human Sex, Reproduction, and Sexuality and the first ever in Applied Positive Psychology. She conducts seminars and workshops in healthy relationships; emotional intelligence; and compassion, connection, love, and leadership. Kimberly is a popularly requested speaker across the Air and Space Forces, teaching lessons and briefings based on the science and how to use it to improve life.