Lecture 20: Everyday life Flashcards
List the ways in which animals are involved in human societies
Pets, food, entertainment, education, research and health.
Discuss animal assisted therapy
This has been around since the late 18th century, for example the york retreat allowed you to walk animals. There is a lot of literature to support it but it’s often flawed.
Discuss the evidence for animal assisted therapy in terms of social interactions
Animals facilitate social interactions. The social catalyst effect; the presence of the animal increases attention received, the type of attention can differ. When people had dogs, passers by were more likely to smile and talk to the person, Wells 2004. Strangers gave people more money when they had a dog, showing increased cooperation. Men are more likely to get women’s phone numbers as well. They’re more likely to help people pick money off the floor also. A care home study showed that dogs reduced depression and induced positive moods.
Discuss the evidence for animal assisted therapy in terms of stress
Boys with insecure attachment benefit from the presence of a dog, a friendly human and a toy dog. It also reduces raised blood pressure, heart rate and heart rate variability. It also reduces state anxiety, this is shown via a baseline, post stress, post experiment. The rabbit reduced anxiety the most, then the turtle.
Discuss the evidence for animal assisted therapy in terms of learning
It motivates you and it reduces stress, it helps children perform faster, they need fewer prompts and they pay more attention to the teacher.
Discuss the evidence for animal assisted therapy in terms of health
Owning a pet benefits mental and physical health, this is an old idea but all the studies have many issues as they infer cause and effect. People with pets have less doctor visits, higher fitness and are less likely to take sleeping pills, this is found when confounding variables are controlled for.
Discuss the role of oxytocin in animal assisted therapy
It’s secreted by the hypothalamus in response to sensory stimulation like breast feeding, sex, touch or stroking. Its release: increases eye contact, empathy, face memory, trust, social skills and generosity. It helps anti-stress effects, it increases pain threshold and enhances digestive function and growth. Interactions with animals can increase oxytocin release, this can be a result of eye contact or tactile interactions.
What should you be careful about when completing studies testing the effects of human animal interactions?
You should use well matched comparison groups, there should be a random assignment of treatment, there should be a pre and post test design. The samples should be large and representative and based on previous studies, the individuals should be blind to the experiment or there should be double blind.
Describe dolphin assisted therapy
List the problems and their consequences of this study
This has become increasingly popular and is really expensive. There is little scientific evidence for it, other than it being unusual and enjoyable. A study that did a pre-post treatment rating of depression and anxiety found that there was a great improvement on depression scores and there was a trend for anxiety scores.
Participants weren’t blind so there was demand characteristics, there was a lack of control so it produced a non-specific effect, it was a self report so there was informant bias and resentful demoralisation and there wasn’t a follow up so the conclusions were unwarranted.
