It is evident from studies of mammals that intimacy, attachment,
caressing, fondling, and genital play are outcomes of involvement of
parent and infant. Among humans, infants with adequate affectional relations
play with their genitals.
A minority of infants not only play
with their genitals but also masturbate, that is, they on occasion
stimulate themselves to orgasm. Kinsey reported that 32 percent of boys
two to twelve months of age were able to reach a sexual climax. (Kinsey,
1948).
Prescott (1969, 1972) hypothesizes that it is reasonable to assume
that affectional deprivation can have neurobiological consequences that
are produced by the absence of physical touching. Neurostructural, neurochemical,
and neuroelectrical measurements document abnormal development
and functions of the sensory system resulting from sensory
deprivation during the formative periods. (Prescott, 1972).
It is instructive to consider the effects of sensory enrichment as
well as sensory deprivation upon neural and behavioral development.
(Prescott, 1969). As one example, studies of rats have shown significant
increase in cell numbers in the cerebellum of handled over against
non-handled rats.
Infants deprived of touch-holding, caressing, fondling-exhibit
more than their share of violent-aggressive behavior and social-emotional
disorders in later years. (Prescott, September 8, 1970). The
reasonableness of this hypothesis has been supported in a number of animal
studies of deprivation, notably studies of isolation-reared rhesus
monkeys. When isolation-reared monkeys are brought together the first
act of touching becomes a stimulus for violent-aggressive behavior.
Dominant social characteristics of deprived animals include, besides
violent-aggressive behavior, self-destructive biting and attacks on infant
offspring. "Touching which is normally pleasurable and comforting
becomes aversive, stressful, distasteful, and apparently painful."
(Prescott and McKay, April 1972, p. 2).
If this is true of animals, Prescott and McKay (February 1973) suggest
that something similar might also be true of children. They reason
that human societies which are characterized by enrichment or
impoverishment of the stimulation that comes from touch during the formative
years of development would result in predominantly peaceful or
violent adult behavior.
In an ingenious, though at best partial, test
of the hypothesis, Prescott and McKay examined published data on forty-
nine societies. It was assumed that high physical intimate affection
would be predictive of permissive and tolerant sexual behavior in
adulthood and that low physical intimate affection would be predictive
of punitive and repressive sexual behavior in adulthood. The data, however,
did not indicate a significant relationship between early infant
affection and later permissive sexuality.
Prescott and McKay returned to the data and asked if it could be
possible that deprivation of affection imposed during the later formative
period (denial of the right to premarital intercourse, for example)
contributes to high adult violence despite the presence of high
infant affection. An examination of seven societies that did not provide
a high level of infant affection and yet had a record of low adult
violence all were characterized by freely permitted premarital sexual
behavior. Prescott and McKay suggest that the effects of early affectional
deprivation might be compensated for by adolescent affectional
permissiveness.
According to Prescott and McKay, premarital sexual relations
may constitute an effective prophylactic against later destructive
and violent interpersonal behavior. When both early (infant) and
later (adolescent) affectional permissiveness or the lack of it were
considered together, it was possible to accurately predict adult interpersonal
behavior in forty-seven of the forty-nine societies studied.
Prescott and McKay conclude that this data offers some compelling validation
for the effects of affectional enrichment or deprivation on human
behavior and indicates that a two-stage developmental theory of
affectional stimulation, the first in infancy and the second in adolescence,
is necessary to accurately account for the development and expression
of peaceful or destructive-violent interpersonal behavior in
adulthood.