Investigating the therapeutic benefits of companion animals: Problems and challenges

Adrian Franklin; Michael Emmison; Donna Haraway; Max Travers

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.3.1.04

Authors

Adrian Franklin University of Tasmania, Australia
Michael Emmison University of Queensland, Australia
Donna Haraway University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
Max Travers University of Tasmania, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.3.1.04

Keywords:

Animal-human relationship, Health, Methodology, Qualitative research, Ethnography

Abstract

To investigate the health benefits of companion animals in a way that goes beyond finding statistical patterns involves appreciating the philosophical debates about the nature of animal consciousness that engage an inter-disciplinary field of scholarship cutting across the Great Divide of the hard sciences and humanities. It also requires developing a methodology to conduct empirical research which is often viewed as of secondary importance by researchers wishing to make a philosophical case about human beings and modernity. This paper considers the achievements of qualitative sociologists, particularly in the field of post-Meadian symbolic interactionism who have addressed these issues, and discusses ways of extending and deepening this agenda through crossfertilization with similar work in ethnomethodology, conversation analysis and post-humanist sociology in investigating the health benefits of dogs.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Adrian Franklin, University of Tasmania, Australia

Adrian Franklin (Professor) trained as an anthropologist in the UK, and has held Professorial positions at the University of Bristol, UK and the University of Oslo (Norway). He is best known for his work on the relationships between humans and the natural world, especially with animals. His books include Animal Nation: The True Story of Animals and Australia; Animals and Modern Cultures, Nature and Social Theory and Tourism. He is currently working on two new books: City Life and A Culture of Fire: Eucalypts, Australians, Fire. Adrian Franklin's work has focused on social and cultural change in modernity, and this includes work on city life, the sociology of nature and environments, our relationships with animals, and the orderings of travel, mobility and tourism.

Michael Emmison, University of Queensland, Australia

Michael Emmison (PhD) is Reader in Sociology, School of Social Sciences, University of Queensland, Australia. His research interests are primarily in the field of language and interaction and he is currently examining the impact of technology (telephone, email and online web counselling) on troubles telling on a national children’s helpline. He is the co-author of Accounting for Tastes (Cambridge University Press, 1999) and Researching the Visual (2000; Sage) and co-editor of Calling for Help: language and social interaction in telephone helplines (2005; Benjamins).

Donna Haraway, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

Donna Haraway is a Professor in the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California at Santa Cruz, USA where she teaches feminist theory, science studies, and animal studies. Her publications include Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science (1989); Simians, Cyborgs, and Women The Reinvention of Nature (1991); Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium.FemaleMan© Meets OncoMouse™ (1997); The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness (2003); and When Species Meet (forthcoming 2007; University of Minnesota Press,).

Max Travers, University of Tasmania, Australia

Max Travers (PhD) is a Lecturer in sociology in the School of Sociology and Social Work, University of Tasmania. He qualified as a solicitor before completing a doctorate at the University of Manchester examining legal practice from an ethnomethodological perspective. His publications include The Reality of Law (1997), The British Immigration Courts (1999), Qualitative Research Through Case Studies (2001), An Introduction to Law and Social Theory (edited with Reza Banakar, 2002) and The New Bureaucracy: Quality Assurance and Its Critics (2007).

References

Alger, Janet. M. and Alger Steven F. (1997) “Beyond Mead: symbolic interaction between humans and felines.” Society and Animals 5(1):65-81.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156853097X00222

Alger, Janet. M. and Alger Steven F. (1999) “Cat Culture, Human Culture: an ethnographic study of a cat shelter.” Society and Animals 7(3):199-218.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156853099X00086

Anderson, Warwick, Christopher Reid and Garry Jennings (1992) “Pet Ownership and Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease.” Medical Journal of Australia 157:298-301.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.5694/j.1326-5377.1992.tb137178.x

Arluke, Arnold and Clinton R. Sanders (1996) Regarding Animals. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Google Scholar

Batson, Kathryn, Barbara McCabe, Mara Baun and Cindy Wilson (1998) “The effect of a therapy dog on socialization and physiological indicators of stress in
Google Scholar

persons diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.” Pp. 203-216 in Companion Animals in Human Health, edited by C. C. Wilson and D. C. Turner. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Google Scholar

Bekoff, Marc, Colin Allen and Gordon Burghardt (2002) The Cognitive Animal: Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives on Animal Cognition. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/1885.001.0001

Corson, S. A. and Corson E. O’Leary (1980) “Pet animals as nonverbal communication mediators in psychotherapy in institutional settings.” Pp. 87-101 in Ethology and Nonverbal Communication in Mental Health, edited by S.A. Corson and E. O’Leary Corson. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Google Scholar

Crist, Eileen (2002) “The inner life of earthworms: Darwin’s argument and its implications.” Pp. 4-8 in The Cognitive Animal: Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives on Animal Cognition edited by M. Bekoff, C. Allen and G. Burghardt. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Google Scholar

Deleuze, Giles and Felix Guattari (1999) A Thousand Plateaus. London: Athlone Press.
Google Scholar

Flynn, Clifton P. (2000) “Battered Women and their Animal Companions: symbolic interaction between human and nonhuman animals.” Society and Animals 8(2):101-127.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156853000511032

Franklin, Adrian S. (1999) Animals and Modern Cultures. London: Sage.
Google Scholar

Franklin, Adrian S. (2005) Animal Nation: The True Story of Animals and Australia. Sydney: University of NSW Press.
Google Scholar

Freidmann, Erika, Sue Thomas and Timothy Eddy (2000) “Companion animals and human health: physical and cardiovascular influences.” Pp. 125-142 in Companion Animals and Us – Exploring the relationships between people and pets edited by A. Podberscek, E. Paul and J. Serpell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar

Garrity, Thomas and Lorann Stallones (1998) “Effects of pet contact on human wellbeing: review of recent research.” Pp. 3-22 in Companion Animals in Human Health edited by C. C. Wilson and D. C. Turner. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452232959.n1

Goode, David (1994) A World Without Words: the social construction of children born deaf and blind. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Google Scholar

Goode, David (2007) Playing with My Dog Katie: An Ethnomethodological Study of Canine-Human Interaction. Ashland, Ohio: Purdue University Press.
Google Scholar

Haraway, Donna (2003) The Companion Species Manifesto. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press.
Google Scholar

Haraway, Donna (2007) When Species Meet. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
Google Scholar

Headey, Bruce (1999) “Health Benefits and Health Cost Savings due to Pets: preliminary estimates from an Australian national survey.” Social Indicators Research 47:233-243.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006892908532

Irvine, Leslie (2004) If You Tame Me: Understanding our Connection with Animals. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Google Scholar

Jennings, Garry, Christopher Reid, Irene Christy and Warwick Anderson (1998) “Animals and cardiovascular health.” Pp. 161-172 in Companion Animals in Human Health edited by C. C. Wilson and D. C. Turner. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452232959.n10

Kaminski, Julianne, Joseph Call and Julian Fisher (2004) “Word Learning in a Domestic Dog: evidence for fast mapping.” Science 304:1682-83.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1097859

Latour, Bruno (1993) We Have Never Been Modern. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Google Scholar

Laurier, Eric, Ramia Maze and Johan Lundin (2006) “Putting the Dog Back in the Park: animal and human mind-in-action.” Mind, Culture and Activity 13(1):2-24.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327884mca1301_2

Melson, Gail (1998) “The role of companion animals in human development.” Pp. 219-236 in Companion Animals in Human Health edited by C. C. Wilson and D. C. Turner. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452232959.n14

Myers, Olin E. (2003) “No Longer the Lonely Species: a post-Mead perspective on animals and sociology.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 23(3):46-68.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/01443330310790255

Newby, Jonica. (1999) The Animal Attraction: Humans and their Animal Companions. Sydney: ABC Books.
Google Scholar

Pepper John and Barbara Smuts (1999) “The evolution of cooperation in an ecological context: an agent-based model.” Pp. 205-213 in Dynamics in Human and Primate Societies edited by T. Kohler and G. Gumerman. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195131673.003.0008

Pickering, Andrew (1995) The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency and Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226668253.001.0001

Pollner, Melvin and Lynn McDonald-Wikler (1985) “The Social Construction of Unreality: a case study of a family’s attribution of competence to a severely retarded child.” Family Process 24:241-254.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1545-5300.1985.00241.x

Roberts, Felicia (2004) “Speaking to and for Animals in a Veterinary Clinic: a practice for managing interpersonal interaction.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 37(4):421-446.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327973rlsi3704_2

Sanders, Clinton R. (1993) “Understanding Dogs: caretakers’ attributions of mindedness in canine-human relationships.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 22(2):205-26.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/089124193022002003

Sanders, Clinton R. (1999) Understanding Dogs. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Google Scholar

Sanders, Clinton R. (2003) “Actions Speak Louder than Words: close relationships between humans and nonhuman animals.” Symbolic Interaction 26(3):405-426.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/si.2003.26.3.405

Serpell, James, editor (1999) The Domestic Dog. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar

Shapiro, Kenneth (1990) “Understanding dogs through kinaesthetic empathy, social construction and history.” Anthrozoos 3 (3):184-195.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2752/089279390787057540

Smuts, Barbara (2001) “Encounters with Animal Minds.” Journal of Consciousness 8(5-7):87-113.
Google Scholar

Tannen, Deborah (2004) “Talking the Dog: framing pets as interactional resources in family discourse.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 37(4)399-420.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327973rlsi3704_1

Travers, Max (2001) Qualitative Research Through Case Studies. London: Sage.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781849209724

Veevers, Jean (1985) “The social meaning of pets: alternative roles for companion animals.” Pp. 11-29 in Pets and the Family edited by M. B. Sussman. New York: Haworth.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1300/J002v08n03_03

Wilson, Cindy C. (1998) “A conceptual framework for human-animal interaction research.” Pp. 61-90 in Companion Animals in Human Health edited by C. C. Wilson and D. C. Turner. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452232959.n4