It took me a while to think of the most fascinating thing I learned in this class this semester because there was usually several things every lecture that were pretty interesting. One thing that did stick out to me was the importance of touch for infants, which was demonstrated by Harry Harlow’s monkey experiments during the 1970s.
The fact that human contact can be so important for development that the lack of it can cause irreversible psychological damage is absolutely mind-boggling to me. We all remember the surrogate mother experiment in which two groups of infant monkeys were given a choice of surrogate mother between a terry cloth mother and a wire mother. One group was provided food via the terry cloth mother, whereas the other group was provided its food via the wire mother. In both groups, no matter which mother provided the food, when a frightening stimulus was presented in the cage, the infant monkeys ran to their terry cloth mothers and clung to them for comfort. This was also the case when the infant monkeys were placed in new environments, and without the comfort of their terry cloth mothers the infant monkeys exhibit fearful behavior by crying, crouching down, or sucking their thumbs. In a similar study, monkeys reared only with wire mothers were found to have troubles with milk digestion, most likely due to the psychological trauma and stress caused by the lack of touch comfort in their lives.
As morally-wrong as Harry Harlow’s experiments were, they have been very important for the world of psychology and developmental studies in humans. Today, so much more is known about the importance of touch in the lives of human infants and hospitals make sure to utilize methods of touch to help the development of premature/underweight babies. Even more so, most parenting magazines and books now place great emphasis on the countless benefits touch can provide in the lives of infants and children.
Touch is vitally important to the health and well-being of a baby in its first few years. Many scientists have called touch our first language, in that it is one of the first means with which we are able to communicate with the world and vice-versa. Touch is the means by which an infant receives comfort and the specific touch between a mother and her child promotes emotional bonding between the two, one that was begun when the baby was as early as 20 weeks old and formed an attachment to a mother’s voice while still within the womb. Many experiments have proven that babies that are touched more cry less than those who are not touched as much. Thus, several experts believe that there is no such thing as spoiling infants by carrying them/touching them too much, and that the more contact between an infant and parent, the better for the infant, who will only feel more secure and comfortable, feelings which are very important for ideal development of children. Recent research suggests that instead of letting infants cry, as many parents do, in order to allow babies to learn traits of independence, parents should instead hold them close as often as possible, and the children will naturally grow up to be more independent and confident.
Even beyond the world of babies, human touch is very important for the well-being of teenagers and adults as well. Touch is way of emotional and mental healing, in the forms of a hug, kiss, or even a pat on the back. Touch is the basis in which humans connect with other human beings, beyond simply hearing or seeing. Even more so, a benign touch stimulus on the skin causes the brain to respond in a series of positive ways under the parasympathetic nervous response system, including lowering blood pressure, increasing digestion, slowing breathing, and generally making us feel more relaxed and at ease. Many researchers believe that the overall adult human population is touch-deprived, which is why there are so many cases of depression and such a high use of medications such as Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil, when all we really need is LOVE (as in hugs, kisses, etc…)
Have you hugged someone today?
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Harlow
http://www.baby.com/view.aspx?pid=196&cid=544
http://www.healthline.com/blogs/teen_health/2006/12/importance-of-touch-and-teens.html
