disadvantages of animal studies in psychology

e0243302. This poses a severe threat to the validity of findings as group differences in outcomes could be caused by underlying differences in certain demographics or characteristics and cannot be confidently attributed to the presence of the assistance dog. For example, organizations that place assistance dogs may have housing, familial, physical, or even financial requirements for potential recipients that should be subsequently reported in the manuscript to fully define the population. However, other studies reported no relationship between having a mobility service dog and self-esteem via the RSES [39, 41] or other standardized measures of self-esteem [15, 28, 36]. Regarding sleep, Guest found better self-reported sleep quality 3- and 12-months after receiving a hearing dog while Rodriguez et al. Most articles were published in the 2010s, indicating an increasing publication interest in this topic over time. While results described positive effects of service dogs in terms of social, psychological, and functional benefits for their handlers, it was concluded that all 12 of the studies had weak study designs with limitations including lack of comparison groups, inadequate description of the service dog intervention, and nonstandardized outcome measures. Animal models are a fundamental tool in the life sciences. Of 27 studies, 15 were cross-sectional and 12 were longitudinal. Because of the broad inclusion criteria, the 27 studies were widely varied in terms of human and dog participants, assessment time points, statistical analyses, and standardized outcomes. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0243302, Editor: Geilson Lima Santana, University of Sao Paulo Medical School, BRAZIL, Received: July 22, 2020; Accepted: November 18, 2020; Published: December 2, 2020. Methodological weaknesses including poor reporting of assistance dog interventions and statistical limitations prevent any clear conclusions made regarding the psychosocial effects of assistance dogs on individuals with disabilities. Jamie Greer, A final potential reason for outcome discrepancies is variation in methodological rigor across studies. The rhesus monkey connectome predicts disrupted functional networks resulting from pharmacogenetic inactivation of the amygdala. What are the disadvantages of being an animal behaviorist . Unfortunately, many introductory textbooks don't give the full picture of animal research. However, positive findings were found in depression using the POMS by a different study [13]. Discover a faster, simpler path to publishing in a high-quality journal. Finally, most studies (21/27;78%) compared outcomes to a control or comparison condition. While there are no legal requirements specifying that an assistance dog must be certified, registered, or receive any specialized training to receive public access rights, independent organizations such as ADI, the International Association of Assistance Dog Partners (IAADP), and the International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF) define a set of minimum training and behavior standards for public access that help guide the assistance dog industry. It is unreasonable to assume that the changes to an individuals life following receipt of an assistance dog is identical for all ages, gender identities, backgrounds, and disabilities. Further, in contrast to a psychiatric service dog or an emotional support dog, the assistance dogs in this review are not explicitly trained for mental health-related support and their effects on the psychosocial health of their handlers may be variable rather than population-wide. Longitudinal studies have found that individuals report improvements to their emotional wellbeing, social functioning, and quality of life just 3 to 6 months after receiving an assistance dog [1315]. Of 5 studies that used the mental health domain of the SF-36 or the shorter 12-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12), only Shintani et al. Researchers who study nonhumans recognize that their studies may involve certain harms that can range from the relatively minor (e.g., drawing a blood sample) to the more serious (e.g., neurosurgery). Still, some harms will remain, and ethically, one must weigh those harms against the potential benefits (for humans and for the animals themselves) to be obtained from the research. Two of the most well-known animal studies were conducted by Konrad Lorenz and Harry Harlow. Most studies (15/27; 56%) were conducted in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom (6/27; 22%). The CES-D asks participants to rate how often they had experienced 20 depressive symptoms in the prior week using statements such as I thought my life had been a failure, while the POMS asks participants to rate from not at all to extremely how they feel right now using single words such as sad and unhappy. It is also possible that some standardized measures do not capture the intended effects from having an assistance dog. However, Guest et al. Only Vincent et al. Included studies assessed psychosocial outcomes via standardized measures from assistance dogs that were trained for functional tasks related to a physical disability or medical condition (omitting psychiatric service dogs or emotional support dogs). Table 6 summarizes vitality outcomes across studies within the sub-categories of general energy/vitality and sleep. Overall, sample sizes were higher than what is usually observed in targeted animal-assisted intervention studies with dogs (e.g. Of 27 studies, 7 (26%) reported outcomes from at least one standardized measure of vitality with a total of five different standardized measures. Our search procedure identified 24 articles containing 27 studies assessing psychosocial outcomes from a wide variety of human and assistance dog populations. Even if we accept evolutionary psychology, humans have evolved to be very different from most other animals, perhaps all other animals. In the self-evaluation subcategory, 5/19 (26%) outcomes found a significant effect of having an assistance dog on standardized measures of self-esteem, self-concept, and other measures of self-evaluation. The specific aims were to (1) describe the key characteristics of studies (2) evaluate the methodological rigor of studies (3) summarize outcomes. A main weakness of animal studies is that animals have a different physiology to humans. Samples sizes ranged from 10 to 316 participants with an average sample size across all studies of N = 83 +/- 74 participants and a median sample size of N = 53. Animal experimentation, also called animal testing, has contributed to many important scientific and medical discoveries. Advancing psychology to benefit society and improve lives. The final sample included 24 articles (12 peer-reviewed publications, 12 unpublished theses/dissertations) containing 27 individual studies. [45] found higher health-related quality of life among those with a mobility service dog compared to a control group, but not among those with a hearing dog. Finally, its important to note that animal research in the United States is very tightly regulated by a series of federal and state laws, policies and regulations, dating back to the landmark Animal Welfare Act from 1966. All articles were screened by two independent reviewers (authors KR and JG) using Covidence systematic review software (Veritas Health Innovation, Melbourne, Australia). Data from 5,191 children were included in the study; 2,236 lived in homes with a dog or cat, and 2,955 lived in households that did not include any animals. S1 Table. Yarmolkevich [46] found a significant effect of having a guide dog on positive affect using the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience [SPANE; 49] compared to a control group, while others studies found no effect of having a hearing dog [29] or mobility service dog [39] on affect via the Positive and Negative Affect Scale [PANAS; 50]. found better social functioning in those with a mobility or medical service dog compared to a control group [16] while Guest found improved social functioning 3- and 12-months after receiving a hearing dog [13]. However, only 44% (12/27) of studies reported statistical values (e.g. Importantly, only a few comparisons were made in the negative direction (2%) indicating that there is limited reason to believe that acquiring an assistance dog is associated with worse functioning. However, due to large heterogeneity and poor reporting of effect sizes and raw data, a narrative synthesis of findings in comparison to unpublished theses and published articles was pursued instead. Only a single study [16] assessed outcomes from child participants under the age of 18 (an additional study [38] had a minimum inclusion age of 16, but the youngest participant was 19). Medical service dogs for diabetes and seizure alert/response were rarely studied [16, 35], and were assessed in conjunction with mobility service dogs rather than on their own. This practice was instrumental in our evolution and in the emergence of civilization. Additionally, research suggests the relationship between an assistance dog and its owner may also serve as a reciprocal attachment and caregiving relationship characterized by secure and strong attachments [18, 19]. As the field of animal-assisted intervention is multidisciplinary, a wide and extensive search was conducted encompassing medical and scientific databases. psychiatric service dogs for posttraumatic stress disorder or autism spectrum disorder). Most longitudinal studies (8/12) assessed participants at two time points: at baseline prior to receiving an assistance dog, and an average of 5.8 +/- 3.3 months after participants received an assistance dog (range of 312 months follow-up). To achieve the third aim of the reviewto summarize outcomespsychosocial outcomes within each study were extracted. This variation in assessment times makes it difficult to draw definitive conclusions on conflicting findings. [14] which found significantly higher internal locus of control 6-months after receiving a mobility service dog. Similarly, Crudden et al. The research community tries to mitigate some of the harms by insuring, for example, that the animals psychological well-being is optimized; in fact, there is a large body of psychological research that focuses on animal welfare and identifying best practices to house and care for animals in captivity. Using the Profile of Mood States Scale [POMS; 51], Guest found increased self-reported vigor 3- and 12-months after receiving a hearing dog and less fatigue 3-months after receiving a hearing dog. Rintala et al. Visual display of methodological ratings for N = 27 studies ordered by the number of studies addressing each item. Interestingly, only one included study [16] assessed outcomes from participants under the age of 18. After receiving an assistance dog, individuals retrospectively report increases to their social, emotional, and psychological health [e.g., 1012]. Assistance dog categories (guide, hearing, mobility, and medical) were collapsed for the purposes of this review, but undoubtedly contribute to the lives of individuals with disabilities in diverse ways. If small rodents are incapable of feeding, they will die within hours - it is highly likely that many substances would not be toxic if a simple sugar solution was injected. One of the first reviews published by Modlin in 2000 [7] summarized nine published quantitative and qualitative studies on the benefits of guide dogs, hearing dogs, and mobility service dogs on their handlers (omitting unpublished theses). [35] found increased functioning 3-months after receiving a mobility, hearing, or medical service dog, while Shintani et al. The latter offers a more cynical take on animal welfare, namely that. [32] reported no relationship between the mobility domain and having a service dog or hearing dog. The principle disadvantage with animal experiments is the problem of generalisability. of Agriculture, and, at the local level by Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs). In addition to the different human and dog phenotypes that contribute to this heterogeneity, there are likely differences in the strength of the human-animal bond and attachment relationships formed between assistance dogs and handlers [19, 76]. This pattern suggests a potential publication bias present in which disproportionately more positive findings are in the published studies than the unpublished theses [78]. Therefore, detailed descriptions of study populations is critical for helping the field understand for whom assistance dogs are beneficial regarding social, emotional, or psychological health and under what contexts or conditions [74]. Center for the Human-Animal Bond, College of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States of America, Current address: Human-Animal Bond in Colorado, School of Social Work, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America, Affiliation: In particular, not only did studies vary largely in terms of sample size, but they also varied in the manner in which statistical analyses were conducted. A common argument against the use of animals in experiments is that animals are not good models for humans, based on the observation that we are not simply larger versions of lab rats - our bodies (and minds) work differently. Therefore, future studies are warranted that specifically assess health and wellbeing using validated parent-proxy or self-report measures to fully understand the potential effects that assistance dogs can have on children and adolescents with disabilities. [43] found that individuals who had guide dogs reported less stress while walking, but not while using public transportation. However, when more than one few companies uses the same resources and provide competitive parity are also known as rare resources. In introduction sections, all studies described an objective, but only 17/27 (63%) of studies stated a directional hypothesis. Research has indicated that beyond the physical or tangible benefits that an assistance dog is trained to provide (e.g. However, methodological rigor did not significantly differ by study design (t(25) = -0.940, p = 0.356). Compared to those on the waitlist, individuals with an assistance dog report better psychosocial functioning and wellbeing [16, 17]. In results sections, 15/21 studies with a control or comparison condition (71%) demonstrated that participants in each condition were comparable on demographic variables. In addition, we can better understand fundamental processes because of the precise control enabled by animal research (e.g., living environments, experimental conditions, etc.). The most notable weaknesses included a lack of adequate reporting in the methodological sections, which not only limits interpretation of findings but prevents reproducibility. For example, the benefits of an assistance dog for a socially isolated individual who experiences periodic anxiety and depression may be significantly different than an individual without these characteristics. However, none of the four studies using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale [CES-D; 52] found significant differences in self-reported depression among those with a mobility service dog compared to a control group [3941] or after 4-months with a mobility service dog [28]. This page has been archived and is no longer being updated regularly. Hall et al. Using a different measure of emotional functioning, Rodriguez et al. Summary of methodological ratings for N = 27 studies ordered by reporting section (. Animal Domestication: Animal domestication is when humans take animals from the wild and keep them over successive generations in controlled environments where the animals are always available to humans. Thus, this pattern may be better explained by the file drawer effect in which there is a bias towards publishing positive findings over null findings [79]. However, only 1/6 (17%) found a significant effect, in which Yarmolkevich found higher life satisfaction among those with a guide dog compared to a control group. John Capitanio, PhD, is a research psychologist in the department of psychology at the University of California, Davis, and a core scientist at the California National Primate Research Center. Limitations Ethical Considerations and Advances in the Understanding of Animal Cognition. For general psychological health, 5/11 (45%) outcomes were significant across group or condition. In terms of emotional functioning, two studies found positive results using the SF-36 role emotional domain; Lundqvist et al. Of 12 total vitality comparisons, 6 (50%) were positive (improved or better vitality in comparison to pre- or control conditions), 6 (50%) were null (no difference) and zero (0%) were negative (decreased or worse vitality in comparison to pre- or control conditions). The study of nonhuman animals has actually played a huge role in psychology, and it continues to do so today. However, it is of note that several methodological weaknesses of the studies make it difficult to draw any definitive conclusions, including inadequate reporting and a failure to account for moderating or confounding variables.

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