THE BORDERS OF THE SELF - CONTAMINATION SENSITIVITY AND POTENCY OF THE BODY APERTURES AND OTHER BODY PARTS

Three surveys of American undergraduate students explore a central asp ect of the concept of ''physical self:'' the vulnerability or sensitiv ity of different parts of the body surface, especially apertures, to i ntrusion and contamination. The basic measure used was rated displeasu re at imagined contact of various body parts of the subject with plain neutral objects (e.g., a Q-tip or a poker chip) or with that same obj ect after imagined contact with a potentially offensive site (e.g., a stranger's mouth). All contaminated objects were described as steriliz ed by dry heat before contact with the subject. The principal findings from these studies are: (1) Contact with apertures is more unpleasant than contact with unbroken skin. (2) Displeasure at contact with aper tures can be analyzed into two components: intrusion sensitivity and c ontamination sensitivity. (3) The anus is the aperture that is most in trusion sensitive, while the mouth and vagina are the most contaminati on sensitive points on the body. (4) In general, the more susceptible an aperture is to contamination, the more potent it is as a contaminan t for other persons. (5) Within the mouth, the sense of offensiveness of an intruding object increases with both physical contact (especiall y of the tongue) and the sense of ''inclusion,'' that is, being within the mouth cavity even in the absence of contact. (6) Heterosexual mal es display strong negativity to any sort of contact with other males, while they seem to sexualize contact with unknown females. For heteros exual females and homosexual males, the pattern of sensitivity (by ape rture) to cockroaches is like that to strange males or females. Howeve r, for heterosexual males, strange male contact is like cockroach cont act, but strange female contact is not. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.