This study compared subjects' impressions of their conversational partners who either displayed or did not display self-touching. Previous reports have focused on self-touching as an indication of underlying negative affect. Subjects were individually videotaped in two separate S-minute conversations with two different confederates: One confederate self-touched during the conversation and the other did not. Self-touching confederates were rated significantly more positively on three of four composite variables (working relationship, honest, and outgoing), and first versus second interactions were regarded more positively on likable person and honest variables. Discussion is focused on discrete and continuous self-touching, functional aspects of self-touching, and the issue of saliency for performers and observers.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Barroso, F. , Freedman, N., & Grand, S. (1980). Self-touching, performance, and attentional processes. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 50, 1083-1089.
2.
Byrne, D. (1971). The attraction paradigm. New York: Academic Press.
3.
Christie, R. , & Geis, F. L. (1970). Studies in machiavellianism. New York: Academic Press.
4.
Dittman, A. T. (1962). The relationship between body movements and moods in interviews. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 26, 480.
5.
Ekman, P. , & Friesen, W. V. (1969a). The repertoire of nonverbal behavior: Categories, origins, usage, and coding. Semiotica, 1, 49-98.
6.
Ekman, P. , & Friesen, W. V. (1969b). Nonverbal leakage and clues to deception. Psychiatry, 32, 88-105.
7.
Ekman, P. , & Friesen, W. V. (1972). Hand movements. Journal of Communication, 22, 353-374.
8.
Ekman, P. , & Friesen, W. V. (1974). Nonverbal behavior and psychopathology. In R. J. Friedman & M. M. Katz (Eds.), The psychology of depression: Contemporary theory and research (pp. 203-232). Washington, DC: Winston.
9.
Ekman, P. , Friesen, W. V., O'Sullivan, M., & Scherer, K. (1980). Relative importance of face, body, and speech in judgments of personality and affect. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 38, 270-277.
10.
Eysenck, H. J. (1962). The Maudsley personality inventory. San Diego, CA: Educational and Industrial Testing Service.
11.
Friesen, W. V. , Ekman, P., & Wallbott, H. (1979). Measuring hand movements. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 4, 97-112.
12.
Freedman, N. (1972). The analysis of movement behavior during the clinical interview. In A. Seigman & B. Pope (Eds.), Studies in dyadic communication (pp. 153-175). New York: Pergamon.
13.
Freedman, N. (1977). Hands, words, and mind: On structuralization of body movements during discourse and the capacity for verbal representation. In N. Freedman & S. Grand (Eds.), Communicative structures and psychic structures (pp. 109-132). New York: Plenum Press.
14.
Freedman, N. , Barroso, F., Bucci, W., & Grand, S. (1978). The bodily manifestations of listening. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, 1, 157-194.
15.
Freedman, N. , & Bucci, W. (1981). On kinesic filtering in associative monologue. Semiotica, 34, 225-249.
16.
Freedman, N. , & Hoffman, S. P. (1967). Kinetic behavior in altered clinical states: Approach to objective analysis of motor behavior during clinical interviews. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 24, 527-539.
17.
Freedman, N. , O'Hanlon, J., Oltman, P., & Witkin, H. A. (1972). The imprint of psychological differentiation on kinetic behavior in varying communicative contexts. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 79, 239-258.
18.
Friedman, H. S. , Hall, J. A., & Harris, M. J. (1985). Type A behavior, nonverbal expressive style, and health. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, 1299-1315.
19.
Goldberg, S. , & Rosenthal, R. (1986). Self-touching behavior in the job interview: Antecedents and consequences. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 10, 65-80.
20.
Grand, S. (1977). On hand movements during speech: Studies of the role of self-stimulation in communication under conditions of psychopathology, sensory deficit, and bilingualism. In N. Freedman & S. Grand (Eds.), Communicative structures and psychic structures (pp. 199-221). New York: Plenum Press.
21.
Grand, S. , Freedman, N., Steingart, I., & Buchwald, C. (1975). The relation of adaptive styles to kinetic and linguistic aspects of interview behavior. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 161, 293-306.
22.
Hall, E. T. (1959). The silent language. New York: Doubleday.
23.
Harper, R. G. , Wiens, A. N., & Matarazzo, J. D. (1978). Nonverbal communication: The state of the art. New York: John Wiley.
24.
Harrigan, J. A. (1985). Self-touching as an indicator of underlying affect and language processing. Social Science and Medicine, 20, 1161-1168.
25.
Harrigan, J. A. , Kay, D. K., & McLaney, M. A. (1987). Influence of performers' role and context on attributions about self-touching. Submitted for publication.
26.
Harrigan, J. A. , Kues, J. R., & Weber, J. G. (1986). Impressions of self-touching and gestures. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 63, 503-516.
27.
Harrigan, J. A. , Lucic, K. S., Langmeyer, D., & Rosenthal, R. (1987). The expression and recognition of anxiety. Unpublished manuscript.
28.
Harrigan, J. A. , & Rosenthal, R. (1983). Physicians' head and body positions as determinants of perceived rapport. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 13, 496-509.
29.
Harrigan, J. A. , Weber, J. G., & Kues, J. R. (1986). Attributions of self-touching performed in spontaneous and posed modes. Journal of Clinical and Social Psychology, 4,(4).
30.
Knapp, M. L. , Hart, R. P., & Dennis, H. S. (1974). An exploration of deception as a communication construct. Human Communication Research, 1, 15-29.
31.
LeCompte, W. (1981). The ecology of anxiety: Situational stress and rate of self-stimulation in Turkey. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 712-721.
32.
Mahl, G. F. (1968). Gestures and body movements in interviews. In J. M. Shlien, H. F. Hunt, J. O. Matarazzo, & C. Savage (Eds.), Research in psychotherapy (Vol. 3, pp. 295-346). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
33.
Mehrabian, A. (1972). Nonverbal communication. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton.
34.
Moussas, E. , Harrigan, J. A., & Langmeyer, D. (1987). Effects of location, duration, and interpersonal context on judgments of self-touching. Unpublished manuscript.
35.
Olson, W. C. (1930). The incidence of nervous habits in children. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 25, 75-92.
36.
Riggio, R. E. , & Friedman, H. S. (1983). Individual differences and cues to deception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 899-915.
37.
Rosenfeld, H. M. (1966). Instrumental affiliative functions of facial and gestural expressions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4, 65-72.
38.
Rosenthal, R. (1984). Meta-analytic procedures for social research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
39.
Rosenthal, R. , Hall, J. A., DiMatteo, M. R., Rogers, P. L., & Archer, D. (1979). Sensitivity to nonverbal communication: The PONS test. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
40.
Rosenthal, R. , & Rosnow, R. L. (1984). Essentials of behavioral research. New York: McGraw-Hill.
41.
Rosenthal, R. , & Rosnow, R. L. (1985). Contrast analysis. New York: Cambridge University Press.
42.
Schachter, S. (1959). The psychology of affiliation. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
43.
Schmidt, C. D. , & Strong, S. R. (1970). "Expert" and "inexpert" counselors. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 17, 115-118.
44.
Shreve, E. G. , Harrigan, J. A., Kues, J. R., & Kay, D. K. (1987). Nonverbal expressions of anxiety in physician-patient interactions. Manuscript submitted for publication.
45.
Snyder, M. (1974). Self-monitoring of expressive behavior. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 30, 526-537.
46.
Sommer, R. (1969). Personal space. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
47.
Strong, S. R. , Taylor, R. G., Bratton, J. C., & Loper, R. G. (1971). Non-verbal behavior and perceived counselor characteristics. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 18, 554-561.
48.
Waxer, P. H. (1977). Nonverbal cues for anxiety: An examination of emotional leakage. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 36, 306-313.
49.
Wolfgang, A. (1984). Nonverbal behavior, perspectives, applications intercultural insights. Lewiston, New York: C. J. Hogrefe.
