The Skin as a Social Organ. Part 2g: bonding aspects of allogrooming

The paper, The skin as a social organ


Previous introductory blogpost to this series.    Preamble: Random thoughts on spas

Part 1: Dual nature of touch: as PTs, do we "get" this? Part 1a: Touch can be pleasant, rilling Part 1b: Vallbo on C-tactiles 

Part 2a: Different kinds of touch Part 2b: Proxemics Part 2c: The sad dearth of manual therapy aspects in reviews of interpersonal touch Part 2d: Learning to sit still, learning to behave, learning to not be connected to oneself Part 2e: Touch early, touch often Part 2f: Human allogrooming

[Hello! I'm back.]

I will pick up exactly where I left off:  The next paragraph of the paper:

In romantic partnerships, relationship satisfaction, previous experience of familial affection, and trust were positively correlated with self-reports of mutual grooming (Nelson and Geher 2007). The same study showed that individuals who scored higher on anxiety subscales of an attachment questionnaire also reported more frequent grooming behavior, suggesting that an anxious attachment style may be accompanied by behavior likely to lead to more secure bonds. It is also important to consider the stage of an affiliative and/or romantic relationship with respect to the role of intensive touching and grooming (Emmers and Dindia 1995). Indeed, different neural mechanisms may come into play during the initiation of an affiliative relationship and during its maintenance (Depue and Morrone-Strupinsky 2005). 

Nelson H, Geher G (2007) Mutual grooming in human dyadic relationships: an ethological perspective. Curr Psychol 26:121–140
Emmers TM, Dindia K (1995) The effect of relational stage and intimacy on touch: an extension of Guerrero and Andersen. Personal Relatsh 2:225–236
Depue RA, Morrone-Strupinsky JV (2005) A neurobehavioral model of affiliative bonding: implications for conceptualizing a human trait of affiliation. Behav Brain Sci 28:313–395

I don't know much about this; unmarried by choice, childless by choice... at least I knew what kind of life I didn't want.

A few stray thoughts about this paragraph:

1. maybe a higher proportion of people who have anxious attachment styles end up in human primate social grooming professions than in other walks of life.

2. proper treatment boundaries are very important, the thicker the better.


If I weren't a thorough person and if I hadn't made a deal with myself to make a blogpost about each and every paragraph in this paper, I would have left this one out as irrelevant to the art and science of human primate social grooming.
..........