Successful Relationships Reading Corner
This week, we said stay in touch – it’s deeply important for your relationships. Here are some interesting articles on the social and physiological nature of touch.
The Vital Importance of Human Touch “The research demonstrating the need for human touch is vast. From a developmental standpoint, infants literally cannot survive without human touch. Skin-to-skin contact in even in the first hour after birth has been shown to help regulate newborns’ temperature, heart rate, and breathing, and decreases crying.”
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Touch “The sense of touch is one of the central forms of perceptual experience, though it has often been overshadowed by vision in both philosophy and psychology. Thought to be one of the first senses to develop, touch occurs across the whole body using a variety of receptors in the skin. It often combines these signals with feedback from the muscles and tendons as we actively move and explore the world, and with proprioceptive information about the position of our tactual surfaces.”
Hugs and kisses: The health impact of affective touch “When we touch, hug, or kiss a friend or partner, that gesture is loaded with meaning. We seek affection, try to establish a connection, or attempt to communicate a need. Various cultures use touch in various ways to display tenderness or respect, and other non-human primates use it to create a connection and establish social hierarchies. Recently, however, some experts have expressed concern that Western societies are experiencing a moment of crisis, as physical touch becomes more strictly regulated and we are less and less likely to engage in social acts such as hugging.”