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Gender Patterns in Touching Behavior

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Gender and Nonverbal Behavior

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Social Psychology ((SSSOC))

Abstract

Touch has been described as both the most basic sensory process and the earliest and most elemental form of communication (Frank, 1957; Montagu, 1971). Unlike other forms of nonverbal communication (e.g., eye gaze, proxemics, paralanguage), a separate term does not exist for the sensory process (e.g., vision, hearing) and the communication process (e.g., gaze, speech). Rather, the same term, touch, generally is used to describe the sensory process, specific stimuli, and the communication mechanism. This chapter focuses on the communication properties of touch in general, and gender patterns in tactile communication, in particular.

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Authors
  1. Brenda Major
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, USA

    Clara Mayo Ph.D.

  2. Department of Psychology, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, 90024, USA

    Nancy M. Henley Ph.D.

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© 1981 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.

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Major, B. (1981). Gender Patterns in Touching Behavior. In: Mayo, C., Henley, N.M. (eds) Gender and Nonverbal Behavior. Springer Series in Social Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5953-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5953-4_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-5955-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-5953-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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