Michael Draper Annamarie Elmer Hanover College Background Personal touch defined Physical contact between two people that is nonerotic by nature and is not out of the realm of everyday experience ID: 906090
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Slide1
Preference for Touch and its Relationship to Other Personality Characteristics
Michael Draper
Annamarie Elmer
Hanover College
Slide2Background
Personal touch defined
Physical contact between two people that is non-erotic by nature and is not out of the realm of everyday experience
Slide3Touch and Development
Harlow, 1958: Contact comfort
Infant monkeys prefer the company of the cloth “mother” than the wire “mother” who provided it with food.
Orphanages: lack of physical and emotional attachment causes mental handicaps
Montagu, 1971: Tactile experience
plays important role in physical, emotional, and intellectual development
Slide4Role of Touch in Adulthood
Whitcher
& Fisher, 1979:
in a hospital setting, participants benefitted from therapeutic touch
Hertenstein
,
Keltner
, & App, 2000
Touch
communicates distinct emotions
Toronto
, 2001
Touch, along with empathic behavior, is an effective tool in psychoanalysis
Slide5Touch and Empathy
Empathy
A sense of shared experience, including emotional and physical feelings, with someone or something other than
oneself
E
mpathy is emotional connection with another, touch
is physical connection with
others
Slide6Touch and the Big Five
Big
Five
:
Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism
Openness, extraversion, and agreeableness will positively correlate with one’s preference for touch.
Neuroticism will negatively
correlate
No significant correlation between preference for touch and conscientiousness.
Slide7Hypothesis
Preference for touch and empathy will be positively correlated
Preference for touch and the Big Five characteristics of agreeableness, openness, and extraversion will be positively correlated
Preference for touch will be negatively correlated with neuroticism
There will be no correlation between preference for touch and conscientiousness
Slide8Pilot Study: Method
Online Study
Psychological Research on the Net (
Krantz
, 2007)
Developed Preference for Touch Scale
50 scenarios
Refined
Study
10
scenarios
*Questionnaire included informed consent, demographics, and debriefing form
Slide9Scale Development
Started with 50 questions
Factor analysis
Sorted by factor loading and took top 10
Reliability
α = .916
Slide10Main Study: Method
Participants
Online Study
N = 144
Dropped 15
N = 129
Males – 32
Predominately Caucasian (85%)
Age: 18 - 60
Mean = 25.42
Slide11Main Study: Touch Scale
Touch
10 questions rated on a 7 point Likert Scale
Developed by the authors for the purposes of this study
Holding a small child’s hand while crossing the street
Sleeping close to your best friend in bed
On the first date, your date touches you on the hand
Slide12Main Study: Empathy
Empathy
Multi-Dimensional Emotional Empathy Scale (Caruso & Mayer, 1999).
30 questions rated on a 5 point
Likert
scale
Ex: The suffering of others deeply disturbs me
Certain pieces of music can really move me
Slide13Main Study: Big Five
Costa and McCrae, 1992
Big Five Personality Inventory
10 questions ranked on a 7 point Likert Scale
Anxious, easily upset
Sympathetic, warm
Dependable, Self-Discliplined
Slide14Main Study: Procedure
Informed consent
Demographics questions
10 question Touch Scale
30 question Empathy Scale
10 question Big 5 Scale
Debriefing form
Slide15r
(127)
= .303,
p < .01
Empathy Score
Touch Score
Slide16Results
Trait 1
Trait
2
r
p-
value
Agreeableness
Empathy
r =
0.436
p = .01
Agreeableness
Touch
r = 0.381
p = .01
Conscientiousness
Openness
r = 0.446
p = .01
Empathy
Touch
r = 0.303
p = .01
Extraversion
Empathy
r = 0.377
p = .01
Openness
Touch
r = 0.186
p = .05
Slide17Regression Results
Empathy is a significant predictor of preference for touch
b
=
0.32, p < 0.01
Gender is not a significant predictor.
Ran regression using gender and empathy as predictors of preference for touch
Slide18Agreeableness is a significant predictor of preference for touch
b
= 0.395 ,
p <0.01
Gender is not a significant predictor
Ran regression using gender and agreeableness as predictors of preference for touch
Slide19Regression Results (con’t)
Openness is no longer a significant predictor for touch when controlling for gender
Shows that openness is a weak result overall
Slide20Discussion
Relationship exists between touch and empathy
Regression shows that empathy and agreeableness are related to preference for touch
Neuroticism and Openness
This study may not have accurately tested for comparing either of these personality traits with touch
Slide21Agreeableness and Touch
Agreeableness:
a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others.
Compassion can be shown by hugging
An antagonistic person would not want to touch another or be touched
Agreeableness related to touch
Our results provide insight as to the relationship between preference for touch and an overall more agreeable and empathic temperament.
Montagu (1971): touch is related to a persons’ overall well-being.
Slide22Future Directions
Even distribution of males to females
Test validity of our touch scale
Experimental environment
Develop a scale that separates between “touch-giving” and “touch-receiving”
Slide23Questions?