Stienissen, Nikita (2023) Social Influences of Pets on Us Towards Strangers. Bachelor thesis, Psychology.
|
Text
S3679179 - Social Influences of Pets on Us Towards Strangers Full Thesis.pdf Download (538kB) | Preview |
Abstract
With inspiration from Victor Plagemaan’s Master thesis at the University of Groningen, we researched the influences of pets on their owners towards strangers. The stereotypes held about cats and dogs such as cats being more judgmental and dogs being more friendly are investigated using a pet psychology scale where statements of cats and dogs were mentioned and participants had to rate the statements on a seven-point scale. The group identity measure was investigated to see how the participants viewed the relationship with their pets as well. The final sample size was 462. Questionnaires constructed from Qualtrics XM were distributed to the participants. In the questionnaire participants were allocated to either the cat or dog condition based on their pet ownership, including past and present ownership. They were then told to imagine scenarios with their respective pet and if they never had a cat or dog as a pet, they were told to imagine that they have a pet according to their condition. Participants in either conditions were exposed to two scenarios. Both premises includes strangers coming over and the pets’ behaviour towards them, the two scenarios were the Judgment and the Security scenario with the security scenario including negative behaviours from the pet towards the stranger and the judgment scenario including a positive reaction from the pet to the stranger. Firstly, we hypothesized that there is an influence of pet behaviour on the participants and that was shown to be true. We also hypothesize that in the security scenario, dogs were more influential due to the stereotypes we have of dogs being guard dogs which was not supported as the results were not significant, the same goes for the third hypothesis where we hypothesize that the cats would rate higher on the Judgment scenario but the opposite was found where dogs rated higher than cats and this was found to be significant. Lastly, we hypothesize owners would be more influenced by the pets reaction than non-owners, this was shown to be significant only in the security scenario and not the judgment scenario.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Spears, R. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | None [Bachelor Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 17 Feb 2023 10:39 |
| Last Modified: | 17 Feb 2023 10:39 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/1696 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |