Editing Haptic communication (section)

==Categories==
Heslin outlines five haptic categories:<ref>Heslin, R. (1974, May) Steps toward a taxonomy of touching. Paper presented to the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.</ref>
; Functional/professional : expresses task-orientation
; Social/polite:  expresses ritual interaction
; Friendship/warmth : expresses idiosyncratic relationship
; Love/intimacy : expresses emotional attachment
; Sexual/arousal : expresses sexual intent

The intent of a touch is not always exclusive and touching can evolve to each one of Heslin's categories.

===Functional/professional===
Managers should know the effectiveness of using [[touch]] while communicating to subordinates, but need to be cautious and understand how touch can be misunderstood. A hand on the shoulder for one person may mean a supportive gesture, while it could mean a sexual advance to another person. Working with others and using touch to communicate, a manager needs to be aware of each person's touch tolerance.

Henley's research found that a person in [[Power (social and political)|power]] is more likely to touch a subordinate, but the subordinate is not free to touch in kind. Touch is a powerful nonverbal communication tool and this different standard between a superior and subordinate can lead to confusion whether the touch is motivated by dominance or intimacy according to Borisoff and Victor.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Borisoff|first1=Deborah|last2=Victor|first2=David A.|year=1989|title=Conflict management: A communication skills approach|location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ|publisher=Prentice-Hall|isbn=0205272940}}{{page needed|date=June 2017}}</ref>

Walton<ref>{{cite book|last=Walton|first=Donald|year=1989|title=Are you communicating? You can't manage without it|location=New York, NY|publisher=McGraw-Hill Publishing|isbn=007068054X}}{{page needed|date=June 2017}}</ref> stated in his book that touching is the ultimate expression of closeness or confidence between two people, but not seen often in business or formal relationships. Touching stresses how special the message is that is being sent by the initiator. "If a word of praise is accompanied by a touch on the shoulder, that's the gold star on the ribbon," wrote Walton.

The most common use of haptic touch in business is the handshake. A handshake in the business world is key to giving a good first impression. However, there are different forms of the handshake that can be given in an appropriate situation which include: a firm handshake (communicates confidence and strength), a limp handshake (conveys weakness and dishonesty), a clasp (use of both hands displays a high level of respect), and a handshake with grip (displays intimidation and dominance).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bailey|first=Britton|date=2018-04-01|title=The Importance of Nonverbal Communication in Business and How Professors at the University of North Georgia Train Students on the Subject|url=https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/honors_theses/33|journal=Honors Theses|access-date=2019-12-03|archive-date=2019-12-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191203225844/https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/honors_theses/33/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Social/polite===
Moving from one haptic category to another can become blurred by [[culture]]. There are many areas in the United States where a touch on the [[wiktionary:forearm#Noun|forearm]] is accepted as socially correct and polite. However, in the Midwest, this is not always an acceptable behavior.

The initial connection to another person in a professional setting usually starts off with a touch, specifically a [[handshake]]. A person's handshake can speak volumes about them and their personality. Chiarella wrote an article for [[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire magazine]] explaining to the predominantly male readership how handshakes differ from person to person and how they send nonverbal messages. He mentioned that holding the grip longer than two seconds will result in a stop in the verbal conversation, thus the nonverbal will override the [[verbal communication]].

A handshake is not only limited to a professional setting but as well an important aspect of youth's team sports. Hamilton wrote that the handshake represents the end-of-game as an embodied ritual, form of intimate touch, and legal gesture.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hamilton|first=Sheryl N.|date=2017-01-02|title=Rituals of intimate legal touch: regulating the end-of-game handshake in pandemic culture|journal=The Senses and Society|volume=12|issue=1|pages=53–68|doi=10.1080/17458927.2017.1268821|s2cid=152146274 |issn=1745-8927}}</ref> These handshakes also vary in types, with the formal business handshake that usually occurs in job and formal settings. In the end-of-game embodied ritual, this usually has high fives in a post game line. There is also the traditional dap up in certain social settings, a different type of handshake that can also serve as a greeting, departure, or overall a symbol of friendship. The word dap serves as an acronym for dignity and pride and signifies that the two people shake hands are equals in regards to one another. This handshake originated within the Vietnam War between black G.I.s as a way to combat the segregation faced within the war.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hamilton |first1=LaMont |title=Five on the Black Hand Side: Origins and Evolutions of the Dap |url=https://folklife.si.edu/talkstory/2014/five-on-the-black-hand-sideorigins-and-evolutions-of-the-dap |work=Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage |date=22 September 2014 }}</ref>

Jones explained communication with touch as the most intimate and involving form which helps people to keep good relationships with others.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1080/03637758509376094 |title=A naturalistic study of the meanings of touch |journal=Communication Monographs |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=19–56 |year=2009 |last1=Jones |first1=Stanley E. |last2=Yarbrough |first2=A. Elaine }}</ref> His study with Yarbrough covered touch sequences and individual touches.

Touch sequences fall into two different types, repetitive and strategic. Repetitive is when one person touches and the other person reciprocates. The majority of these touches are considered positive. [[Strategic]] touching is a series of touching usually with an ulterior or hidden motive thus making them seem to be using touch as a game to get someone to do something for them.

More common than the sequential touches are the individual or single touches. They must be read by using the total context of what was said, the nature of the relationship and what kind of social setting was involved when the person was touched.

Yarbrough designed a blueprint for how to touch. She designated the different body areas as to whether they are 'touchable' or not. Non-vulnerable body parts (NVBP) are the hand, arm, shoulder and upper back, and vulnerable body parts (VBP) are all other body regions.

[[Civil inattention]] is defined as the polite way to manage interaction with strangers by not engaging in any interpersonal communication or needing to respond to a stranger's touch. Goffman uses an elevator study to explain this phenomenon.<ref>Goffman, E. (1963). Behavior in public places, New York: Free Press.</ref> It is uncommon for people to look at, talk to, or touch the person next to them. While it may be so crowded that they 'touch' another person, they will often maintain an expressionless demeanor so not to affect those around them.

===Friendship/warmth===
It is more acceptable for women to touch than men in social or friendship settings, possibly because of the inherent dominance of the person touching over the person being touched. Women and girls are more commonly known for interacting with each other through touch than men and boys are. This is thought to be because same-sex touch is acceptable for women.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bosson |first1=Jennifer K. |last2=Vandello |first2=Joseph A. |last3=Buckner |first3=Camille E. |title=The Psychology of Sex and Gender |date=2018 |publisher=SAGE Publications |isbn=978-1-5443-1039-8 }}{{page needed|date=February 2024}}</ref> Whitcher and Fisher conducted a study to see whether friendly touch in a healthcare setting reduced [[anxiety]] equally or differently between men and women.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Whitcher |first1=Sheryle J. |last2=Fisher |first2=Jeffrey D. |title=Multidimensional reaction to therapeutic touch in a hospital setting. |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |date=1979 |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=87–96 |doi=10.1037/0022-3514.37.1.87 |pmid=458550 }}</ref> A nurse was told to touch patients for one minute while the patients looked at a pamphlet during a routine preoperative procedure. Females reacted positively to the touch, whereas males did not. It was surmised that males equated the touch to being treated as inferior or dependent.

Touching among family members has been found to affect the behavior of those involved. Touch is a way that a child can express positive emotion. For example, physical affection, like hugs, can serve as an overt display of love. Various factors are at work within a family setting. As a child grows older, the amount of touching by the parent decreases although it does continue to be an important social behavior for that child to communicate positive or [[negative emotion]]s later in their future.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bai |first1=Sunhye |last2=Repetti |first2=Rena L. |last3=Sperling |first3=Jacqueline B. |title=Children's expressions of positive emotion are sustained by smiling, touching, and playing with parents and siblings: A naturalistic observational study of family life. |journal=Developmental Psychology |date=January 2016 |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=88–101 |doi=10.1037/a0039854 |pmc=4695297 |pmid=26524382 }}</ref>

===Love and intimacy{{Anchor|Love/intimacy}}===
{{main|Physical intimacy}}

====Healthy touch====
The primary nonverbal behavior that has the biggest effect on [[interpersonal relationships]] is touch. The amount of touching increases as a relationship moves from impersonal to personal.

Three areas of public touch between couples have been studied: the amount of touch between a couple in the initial stages of a romantic relationship; how much touching goes on between the couple, and the extent of touching with the amount of touch men and women displayed and who initiated the touch and when they initiated it.

Public touch can serve as a [[Tie signs|tie sign]] that shows others that one's partner is "taken".<ref>Morris, D. (1977), Manwatching: A field guide to human behavior. New York: Abrams.</ref> When a couple is holding hands or putting their arms around each other, this is a tie sign showing others that they are together. Tie signs are used more often by couples in the dating and courtship stages than between their married counterparts according to Burgoon, Buller, and Woodall.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burgoon |first1=Judee K. |last2=Buller |first2=David B. |last3=Woodall |first3=William Gill |title=Nonverbal Communication: The Unspoken Dialogue |date=1996 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=978-0-07-008995-2 }}{{page needed|date=June 2017}}</ref>

Studies have also shown a difference between the sexes on who touches when. In the initial stages of a relationship, men often follow socially prescribed [[gender role]]s. Patterson indicated that men fulfilling this social role would touch more and after initial touch in casual relationships and as the relationship became more intimate during serious dating or [[marriage]] relationships, women would touch more.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Patterson |first1=M. L. |chapter=Functions of nonverbal behavior in close relationships |pages=41–56 |editor1-last=Duck |editor1-first=Steve |title=Handbook of Personal Relationships: Theory, Research and Interventions |date=1988 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-0-471-91491-4 }}</ref> American culture still dictates that men "make the first move" in the context of dating and relationships.

Touching between married couples may help maintain good health. In a study by [[University of Virginia]] psychologist [[Jim Coan]], women under stress showed signs of immediate relief by merely holding their husband's hand. This seemed to be effective when the woman was part of a satisfying marriage.

====Violence====
{{See also|Domestic violence|Common couple violence}}
Touching in intimate relationships may also be violent at times.  McEwan and Johnson categorize violent touch in relationships into two categories: intimate terrorism and common couple violence.<ref>McEwan, B., and Johnson, S.L. Relational Violence: The Darkest Side of Haptic Communication. The Nonverbal Communication Reader. Ed. L.K. Guerrero and M.L. Hall. 3rd ed. Long Grove, IL: Waveland P, 2008. 232-39.</ref> Intimate terrorism is characterized by an escalating need to control or dominate a relationship with high frequency and severity. Common couple violence, on the other hand, is often a result of minor conflict, is less frequent and severe, and does not escalate over time. These definitions encompass the types of violence within a situation regarding a couple, both intimate terrorism and common couple violence. On a broader spectrum there is also domestic violence that regards all types of violence including emotional, physical, or sexual. But, instead of only in a couple situation, domestic violence is not limited to just that, it also defines situations with any family member or people who live together. This includes roommates as well and also includes different types of abuse such as child, elder, or marital abuse.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Patra |first1=P. |last2=Prakash |first2=Jyoti |last3=Patra |first3=B |last4=Khanna |first4=Puneet |title=Intimate partner violence: Wounds are deeper |journal=Indian Journal of Psychiatry |date=2018 |volume=60 |issue=4 |pages=494–498 |doi=10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_74_17 |doi-access=free |pmid=30581217 |pmc=6278226 }}</ref>

===Sexual/arousal===
{{main|Sexual arousal|Sexual response cycle}}

According to Givens, the process of nonverbal communication or negotiation is to send and receive messages in an attempt to gain someone's approval or love. [[Courtship]], which may lead to love, is defined as a nonverbal message designed to attract sexual partners. During courtship, we exchange nonverbal communication gestures to tell each other to come nearer and nearer until we touch. Essential signals in the path to intimacy include facial nuzzles, kissing and caressing each other.

Courtship has five phases which include the attention phase, recognition phase, conversation phase, touching phase, and the love-making phase. Haptics takes place more during the last two phases.

The touching phase:<br />
''First touch'': Is likely to be more "accidental" than premeditated by touching a neutral body part and where the recipient either accepts the touch or rejects it through body movement.

''Hugging'': The embrace is the most basic way of telling someone that you love them and possibly need them, too.

''Intention to touch'': A nonverbal communication haptic code or cue is the intention behind it. Reaching your hand across the table to a somewhat unknown person is used as a way to show readiness to touch.

''Kissing'': Moving in concert by turning heads to allow for the lips to touch is the final part of the fourth stage of courtship, the kiss.

The final phase, love-making, which includes [[Somatosensory system|tactile]] stimulation during foreplay known as the light or protopathic touch. Any feelings of fear or apprehension may be calmed through other touching like kissing, nuzzling, and a gentle massage.