The Psychological Processes Involved in the Development of a High-Quality Relation with one’s Dog

Abstract

Background. Several studies have found an effect of pet ownership on human health and well-being. We propose that these benefits can only occur when the pet owner perceives the dog in a certain way: As having a human-like psychological functioning and experience of the world (anthropomorphism), and as part of one’s identity (assimilation). These perceptions are thought to support the development of a high-quality relationship with the dog that can lead to positive effects on health and well-being. Method. Two samples of dog owners (N=136 and N=928) completed an online questionnaire assessing anthropomorphism and assimilation, and relationship satisfaction and commitment to the dog (as measures of the quality of the relationship). In addition, a set of measures to validate the new anthropomorphism and assimilation scales were assessed. Results. Anthropomorphism and assimilation were related to satisfaction and commitment in moderation and in mediation. That is, the relation between anthropomorphism and commitment was especially strong when assimilation was low, and the relation between assimilation and commitment was largely mediated by anthropomorphism. Furthermore, validating the new scales, anthropomorphism was significantly related to secondary emotions recognized in the dog, and assimilation was significantly and negatively related to self-esteem and loneliness. Conclusion. The results show that anthropomorphism and assimilation had a significant relation with satisfaction and commitment, which is in line with the notion that this psychological process is important for the development of a high-quality relationship between owner and dog.

Owner’s Anthropomorphic Perceptions of Cats’ and Dogs’ Abilities Are Related to the Social Role of Pets, Owners’ Relationship Behaviors, and Social Support

“…A central test was whether the relationship of the two measures of anthropomorphization with the three outcomes was mediated by the perception of the pet's social role; the extent to which the pet was perceived in terms of being a child, a friend, a family member, and provider of love [17,26,27]. The correlational analyses showed that both measures of anthropomorphization were indeed significantly, albeit weakly, related to the perception of the social role of the pet (0.16 IDAQ and 0.38 COANT) and the correlations of the perception of the social role of the pet with the three outcomes measures were all significant and of substantial magnitude (0.43 to 0.65).…”

“…Being a family member (instead of a mouser) was, for example, associated with a stronger attribution of friendliness and intelligence to cats by their owners [24] and when dog owners thought of their dogs as children, they rated them as more empathic [25]. These findings suggest that people form (human-like) perceptions of their pets' social role [17,26,27] that might influence their behavior towards the pet.…”

“…The perception of the pet in a human social role, the Pet Role Perception (PRP), was assessed by a scale consisting of four items inspired by Albert and Bulcroft [26] and Vink and Dijkstra [27]: "my dog is like a child to me", "love for animals is real love", "my dog is a full member of the family" and "my dog is a true friend", which were scored on a seven-point scale: strongly disagree (1), disagree (2), slightly disagree (3), neither agree nor disagree (4), slightly agree (5), agree (6), and strongly agree (7). The average item score was used as the scale score (α = 0.77).…”