Social contact is a necessity
With more local lockdowns and limits to socialising being imposed, what does this mean for our health and development?
As a species we need social contact and, as long as it’s welcomed, the more we can have of it the better. However, the form it takes, and the needs it fulfils, vary across our lifespan.
Babies come into the world almost completely helpless. For some years – relatively longer than any other creature – they depend on others to feed them, keep them warm and clean, and teach them how to survive in the community.
Loving, direct care is more important to baby mammals even than nourishment, as experiments with rhesus monkeys by Harry Harlow at the University of Wisconsin demonstrated.
If a baby is consistently deprived of attention from a human carer, British psychologist John Bowlby argued they could become emotionally detached; unresponsive to others.
Cognitively, too, the presence of other humans is a priority. Jerome Kagan at Harvard showed that babies as young as seven months would rather look at a human face than any other representation.
As they grow, the amount of holding and direct physical contact decreases somewhat, although toddlers continue to seek direct physical contact whenever they’re distressed or feel unsafe. And during the pre-school years it is essential for a child to spend time directly with others so they can learn how to get on with people of different ages, develop linguistic ability and further their social and cognitive skills. Young children learn best by modelling – copying the behaviour of those around them, as Albert Bandura at Stanford demonstrated.
Once children reach school age, social contact with peers becomes the major focus. As psychologist Erik Erikson explained in his book Identity and the Life Cycle, children and adolescents learn who they are, with what groups they identify and, towards the end of adolescence, what makes them unique within those circles, by interacting with those around them.
In adulthood the desire for intimacy, to find a partner and procreate (if that is their choice), to feel safe and secure and to know where they belong, drives the need for social contact. The frequency of direct encounters varies with circumstances and character, although it’s still vital for everyone – particularly in times of distress and uncertainty.
As we age, social contact becomes paramount. This is the time when we need to tell others about what we’ve done, when and with whom. It’s the time when hopefully we come to know that our efforts were appreciated. This is the basis of a number of psychological treatments for those who become depressed during their later years. It’s the time when we need to order and share our experiences, so our history becomes a story that makes sense. In later life, just as during our younger years, social contact is a necessity, not an option.