ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a method of observing and coding touch tie-signs as they occur in the field, incorporating both the types and the functions of touch-based tie-signs. It examines the tie-sign coding sheet used by Afifi and Johnson and suggests methodological revisions that may improve the utility of future applications of the measure. Researchers studying tie-signs and other affection displays generally overlay an ideology of intimacy onto the enactment of relative intimacy and represented common, social body-contact behaviors. The affect management function, when applied to tie-signs, reflects cases where individuals use these behaviors to express a particular emotion. Tie-signs used for social control are those that involve efforts to influence another person. Morris' work on nonverbal action that 'indicates the existence of a personal relationship' contributes in important ways to our knowledge of tie-signs and provides specific form to Goffman's observations.
