Measuring Social Needs Flashcards
What 4 things does social environment comprise of?
1) Social structure
2) Social relationship
3) Social cues
4) All associated internal states experienced by an individual
How does the Animal Welfare Act 2006 define social needs?
Social needs = To be with or apart from other animals, as appropriate
What does it mean by “ at a minimum appropriate quality of social environment to avoid poor welfare according to evolutionary adaptions, where animals cannot otherwise appropriately adapt”
The quality of social environment is the nature of the social environment the animal finds itself in
Evolutionary adaption refers to:
- Group living animals finding it hard to live alone
- Asocial animals may find it hard to live with other animals
This is because the animals may not be able to cope with changes in their social environment
What 5 things are social needs influenced by?
1) Adaptions to group vs solitary living
2) Differences in social structure
3) Differences in requirement for social learning
4) Differences in strength and nature of social relationships
5) Possible differences in complexity of social cognition and emotions
True or false
Social needs do not differ between species
False
Social needs differ between species
Within individuals what sorts of things modify social needs?
Sickness Pain Injury Specific social attachments Reproductive status Age Experience
True or false
If an animal is sick it may want to be away from others or it may want care from others
True
True or false
If the individual has formed a specific social attachment with another individual then those can influence the needs associated with that particular bond and whether or not it can adapt to separation
True
True or false
With reproductive status the animal may be solitary most of the time but needs to interact with another individual to achieve fitness outcomes
True
What 5 things could inappropriate social environment lead to?
1) Absence of socio-positive opportunities
2) Frustrated motivation and fearfulness
3) Impacts on normal development and deficits in learning
4) Social stress, physical injury
5) Depression
True or false
Social environment can also impact individuals through social transmission of emotions and/or the experience of complex social emotions if the species is capable
True
True or false
It’s important to establish what we need to monitor and what makes a good social environment
True
What 3 things do we need to establish in terms of what we need monitor and what makes a good social environment?
1) We need to establish what the animals social needs and wants are
2) We also need to establish the impacts of provision and non-provision of the animals social wants and needs
3) Understanding capacities for emotional contagion/social transmission, social cognition and social emotion to comprehensively identify risks to welfare
True or false
All species are not flexible in adapting to differences from free living
False
Some species are more flexible than others in adapting to differences from free living
True or false
If we know natural social structure and flexibility, quality of social relationships and the animals capacity for negative and positive social emotions we can formulate hypothesises about how welfare could be impacted
To test hypothesises about how welfare could be impacted you use social and non-social welfare indicators to look at how that might more widely impact the animal
True
True or false
When we’re thinking about the importance of aspects of social environment we can use the idea of motivation to access or avoid these in order to help us develop our ideas about that
True
True or false
When we’re thinking about the importance of aspects of social environment we can use the idea of motivation to access or avoid these in order to help us develop our ideas about that
True
What is social reinstatement a measure of?
Social reinstatement is considered a measure of sociality or the tendency of a particular species to associate in social groups
True or false
Social reinstatement can vary between individuals
True
True or false
Social reinstatement can not be genetically selected for
False
Social reinstatement can be genetically selected for
Explain how a social reinstatement test works
In a social reinstatement test a subject animal is put in a box and is released to join a group of conspecifics
You would then measure:
Latency to reach companions after being released from the start box
Duration running on a treadmill to retain contact with companions
True or false
Social reinstatement is quite telling in terms of response to social isolation and how motivated an animal is to get back to a group of animals
True
True or false
Social reinstatement tests suffer from the same limitations as any preference tests or approach avoidance test
True
What do you need to think about when doing a social reinstatement test?
We also need to think about access time in terms of reward
When doing a social reinstatement test we need to think about what elements of access beyond just getting contact with the reward are important and rewarding to the animal
This is done to sufficiently represent the type of test that we want to address
What do social preference and avoidance tests allow you to assess?
Social preference and avoidance tests allow us to assess relative preference of different social stimuli
Give examples of different social stimuli
Access to:
Males vs females
Familiar animal vs unfamiliar animal
High ranker vs low ranker
Young vs old
Own offspring vs others offspring
Related vs unrelated
Degrees of familiarity
Group vs individual
Conspecific vs allospecificWhat is a strength of social preference and avoidance tests?
We can introduce a cost to the preference test
These types of tests can allow us not just to look at whether or not animals prefer particular types of social stimuli but also whether they will avoid or are aversive towards particular types of social stimuli
What are the 3 ways of examining avoidance tests?
1) Active avoidance
2) Passive avoidance
3) Titration against another resource
What happens in an active avoidance test?
The animal needs to do something to get away or avoid the social stimulus
Examples of what you'd measure are:
Latency to move away
Speed of movement away
Work to move away/avoidWhat happens in a passive avoidance test?
Passive avoidance tests are where you get the animal to stop doing something or not to do something to avoid the negative stimuli
This is often a useful measure for animals that are likely to react to a frightening stimuli by freezing
This is because if they freeze then they’re incapable of doing something active to avoid the stimuli
In passive avoidance tests you can measure the latency to access an area where the stimulus resides
What happens in a Titration against another resource test?
You can titrate against a resource by looking at the relative importance
You can look at if the animal is:
- Slower to access or stops accessing a preferred resource to avoid exposure to the social stimuli
Or
- Faster to access or keeps accessing social stimulus despite associated exposure to an aversive stimulus
What are the 6 potential indicators relevant to establishing social needs?
1) Sociability
2) Distress calls when separated from the group or particular members of the group
3) Oxytocin (or Mesotocin)
4) Synchrony
5) Social play
6) Agonistic behaviour
What is agonistic behaviour?
Agonistic behaviour are all behaviours associated with conflict which includes fighting, threat behaviour, displacement behaviour, and conflict appeasing behaviour
What 5 situations do agonistic behaviour increase?
1) Social disruption in a group
2) Competition of a resource
3) Inappropriate socialisation
4) Pain
5) Inescapable stress
Why do we need to be careful when measuring agonistic behaviour?
This is because like any other behaviour it has the same disadvantages and advantages
However in terms of agonistic behaviour function it may also change seasonally and be more likely to occur during some activities than others depending on species
True or false
Some species show conflict reducing behaviour which may be indirect evidence of conflict
True
What can we predict that negative states are also associated with in relation to agonistic behaviour?
We can predict that negative states are also associated with:
- social defeat
- absence of predictability and control
- inability to avoid agonistic behaviour
What do we measure in terms of agonistic behaviour?
With agonistic behaviour you’d usually measure frequency/duration of different types of agonistic behaviour
This can then measure variation in severity of agonistic behaviour
We can also measure the outcomes of agonistic behaviour
If it’s not possible to measure the actual behaviour then we can measure the consequences of the agonistic behaviour as an indirect measure
However this method may not be as sensitive
What are affiliative behaviours?
Affiliative behaviour is a tendency to associate with and interact positively with others, usually members of the same species
Give examples of behaviours that people have used to indicate affiliative behaviour?
Allogrooming Resting in contact Playing Synchronising activities Maintaining proximity Reinstatement behaviour when separated Greeting behaviour when reunited
True or false
Affiliative behaviour is thought to promote cohesion in a group
This has evolutionaryly advantages for the group in terms of terms of fitness
True
True or false
Affiliative behaviour is thought to be associated with socio-positive states
True
True or false
To measure affiliative behaviour at a group level you can measure frequency/duration of affiliative behaviour
True
True or false
Affiliative behaviour may be reduced or absent in situations that increase aggression
However we do need to be aware that affiliative behaviour may occur post aggression to help deescalate and calm situations
True
True or false
Affiliative behaviour can also indicate the presence of complex social bonds
True
How do Newberry & Swanson 2001 define social bonds?
A social bond is a mutual positive social attachment that is relatively long lasting and survives temporary separation
True or false
We are less likely to see affiliative behaviour between individuals with social bonds than between individuals that happen to live in the same group
False
We are more likely to see affiliative behaviour between individuals with social bonds than between individuals that happen to live in the same group
True or false
A social bond is characterised by affiliative behaviour directed by 1 or both parties towards the other consistently
True
True or false
Social bonds are considered to be associated with more positive affective states
True
True or false
We can also use affiliative behaviour to investigate evidence of types of relationships or social bonds
True
Give examples of biochemicals used to make and maintain social bonds
Oxytocin
Vasopressin
Prolactin
Opioids
True or false
Research has also indicated that individuals with strong social bonds perform affiliative behaviour accompanied by reduced heart rate and elevated Beta-endorphins
We may also expect to see certain behaviours that are consistently performed towards particular individuals where social bonds exist
This means time spent in proximity and/or number of positive interactions should be greater than chance and depend on strength of the relationship
True
How can you examine time spent in proximity and/or number of positive interactions in terms of affiliative behaviour?
We can examine this by looking at association indices or social network analysis
What do you record when using social network analysis?
You will record standard measures of behaviour when using social network analysis
You will usually record ‘contacts’ between individuals in some form
This allows you to create a matrix of relationships within the group
What are social network analysis used to indicate?
You use social network analysis to indicate quality of relationships collectively and pairwise, as well as the importance of particular group members in the group
We can look at this in terms of:
Transmission of information/disease
As central/peripheral to the group
As links to other groups
What is Edgar et al 2015’s definition of social buffering?
Social buffering = The process by which presence of a conspecific can ameliorate an individual’s response to a stressor
True or false
Social bonds seem to buffer individuals against the experience of stress
True
True or false
Social buffering is not distinct from termination of social isolation
False
Social buffering is distinct from termination of social isolation
What 2 things may social buffering depend on?
Social buffering may depend on the conspecific mood state of the other animal via social contagion
Quality of social relationship may also be important for social buffering to occur
What can short term separation from individuals with social bonds be associated with?
Locomotion (searching) and vocalisation with intermittent bouts of energy conserving lethargy
Altered feeding and sleep patterns
Absence of play
Elevated corticosteroid levels
Alterations in heart-rate and core body temperature
These last 2 indicators may be associated with greater activity so you need to control for that when using them
What can long term separation from individuals with social bonds be associated with?
Adaption
Short term responses wane
Non-adaption
This is where the individual doesn’t forget the other individual and short term responses don’t reduce in frequency
These responses would suggest a more complex longer term type of relationship
Non-adaption can present as:
Grief like behaviour
Cognitive impairment
Depressed immunity
What kinds of animals show behaviours associated with long term separation from individuals with social bonds?
These types of responses tend to be reported in long lived intelligent mammals and monogamous birds
True or false
In understanding how animals process and perceive information about their social environment we are able to identify potential risks to welfare
We can then hypothesize and then test these potential risks to welfare in terms of a number of different factors
True
Give examples of ways to look for possible risks to welfare by understanding social cognition and social emotion
Information encoded in communication Individual recognition Social memory Understanding of another's experiences Understanding of social constructs such as fairness or jealousy
True or false
There are different levels of social transmission of emotions involving different degrees of cognitive processing sophistication
True
What does emotional contagion require?
Emotional contagion requires that an individual sees the emotional state of another individual and that results in a matching emotional state within the observer
What 3 things is emotional contagion associated with?
Low cognitive load
Suggested as a basic form of empathy
Being adaptive as it is a more flexible strategy than behavioural mimicry
What 2 things does demonstrating social transmission of emotional state from 1 individual to another require?
1) Exclusion of non-social transmission explanations
2) Demonstration of the same emotional state
Another more complex way of emotion arising in individuals as a result of observing and understanding emotions in others is perspective taking
What is perspective taking?
Perspective taking is a form of cognitive empathy
Cognitive empathy is where an animal observes an emotional state in another individual and understands it from their perspective without necessarily matching the emotional state
Due to this cognitive empathy allows the animal to not be crippled by the response to that emotional state and help the other individual
Another complex social cognition is inequity aversion
What is inequity aversion?
Inequity aversion is where an animal demonstrates understanding of the concept of fairness
This has implications for how animals should be managed because if 1 animal gets something another animal doesn’t then there are potential negative states associated with that
