Nonhuman animals are ubiquitous to human life, and permeate a diversity of social contexts by providing humans with food and clothing, serving as participants in research, improving healing, and offering entertainment, leisure, and companionship. Despite the impact that animals have on human lives and vice versa, the field of psychology has barely touched upon the topic of human–animal relations as an important domain of human activity. We review the current state of research on human–animal relations, showing how this body of work has implications for a diverse range of psychological themes including evolutionary processes, development, normative factors, gender and individual differences, health and therapy, and intergroup relations. Our aim is to highlight human–animal relations as a domain of human life that merits theoretical and empirical attention from psychology as a discipline.

Toward a psychology of human–animal relations.

Over 77 million dogs and 93 million cats share our households in the United States. Multiple studies have demonstrated the importance of pets in their owners' physical and mental health. Given the large number of companion animals in the United States and the proximity and bond of these animals with their owners, understanding and preventing the diseases that these companions bring with them are of paramount importance. Zoonotic protozoal parasites, including toxoplasmosis, Chagas' disease, babesiosis, giardiasis, and leishmaniasis, can cause insidious infections, with asymptomatic animals being capable of transmitting disease. Giardia and Toxoplasma gondii, endemic to the United States, have high prevalences in companion animals. Leishmania and Trypanosoma cruzi are found regionally within the United States. These diseases have lower prevalences but are significant sources of human disease globally and are expanding their companion animal distribution. Thankfully, healthy individuals in the United States are protected by intact immune systems and bolstered by good nutrition, sanitation, and hygiene. Immunocompromised individuals, including the growing number of obese and/or diabetic people, are at a much higher risk of developing zoonoses. Awareness of these often neglected diseases in all health communities is important for protecting pets and owners. To provide this awareness, this review is focused on zoonotic protozoal mechanisms of virulence, epidemiology, and the transmission of pathogens of consequence to pet owners in the United States.

Transmission and Epidemiology of Zoonotic Protozoal Diseases of Companion Animals

Saving Mr. Nature: Anthropomorphism enhances connectedness to and protectiveness toward nature

Pets as safe havens and secure bases: The moderating role of pet attachment orientations

Dogs and cats in Brazil serve as primary hosts for a considerable number of parasites, which may affect their health and wellbeing. These may include endoparasites (e.g., protozoa, cestodes, trematodes, and nematodes) and ectoparasites (i.e., fleas, lice, mites, and ticks). While some dog and cat parasites are highly host-specific (e.g., Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and Felicola subrostratus for cats, and Angiostrongylus vasorum and Trichodectes canis for dogs), others may easily switch to other hosts, including humans. In fact, several dog and cat parasites (e.g., Toxoplasma gondii, Dipylidium caninum, Ancylostoma caninum, Strongyloides stercoralis, and Toxocara canis) are important not only from a veterinary perspective but also from a medical standpoint. In addition, some of them (e.g., Lynxacarus radovskyi on cats and Rangelia vitalii in dogs) are little known to most veterinary practitioners working in Brazil. This article is a compendium on dog and cat parasites in Brazil and a call for a One Health approach towards a better management of some of these parasites, which may potentially affect humans. Practical aspects related to the diagnosis, treatment, and control of parasitic diseases of dogs and cats in Brazil are discussed.

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Dogs, cats, parasites, and humans in Brazil: opening the black box.

Social support is critical for psychological and physical well-being, reflecting the centrality of belongingness in our lives. Human interactions often provide people with considerable social support, but can pets also fulfill one’s social needs? Although there is correlational evidence that pets may help individuals facing significant life stressors, little is known about the well-being benefits of pets for everyday people. Study 1 found in a community sample that pet owners fared better on several well-being (e.g., greater self-esteem, more exercise) and individual-difference (e.g., greater conscientiousness, less fearful attachment) measures. Study 2 assessed a different community sample and found that owners enjoyed better well-being when their pets fulfilled social needs better, and the support that pets provided complemented rather than competed with human sources. Finally, Study 3 brought pet owners into the laboratory and experimentally demonstrated the ability of pets to stave off negativity caused by social rejection. In summary, pets can serve as important sources of social support, providing many positive psychological and physical benefits for their owners.

/pdf/friends-with-benefits-on-the-positive-consequences-of-pet-4x1k3w8hr5.pdf

Friends with benefits: On the positive consequences of pet ownership.

What is the self? This age-old question is one that, surprisingly, receives little attention even among researchers who study it. In our view, addressing this important question begins with acknowledging that the self is composed of multiple, context-dependent self-aspects represented in an interrelated memory network. These self-aspects develop in the service of pursuing important self-relevant goals (e.g., reproduction, achievement, belongingness) and reflect one's important qualities exhibited in these domains. Because context activates a goal-relevant self-aspect, discrete subregions of self-knowledge are activated at any given time, which limits the impact of core personality attributes and shapes the experience of current affect. This approach has broader implications for explaining how the self can be both stable yet variable, for the conditions under which self-concepts develop and change, for distinguishing between the self as the known and the knower, and for goal pursuit and self-regulatory act...

/pdf/the-self-as-a-collection-of-multiple-self-aspects-structure-4qsoc34hp4.pdf

The Self as a Collection of Multiple Self-Aspects: Structure, Development, Operation, and Implications

The Social Cognition of the Self

This work examined whether people with divergent explicit and implicit evaluations of African Americans exhibit motivated and biased judgments that could have negative repercussions for members of that group. Specifically, we proposed that participants with relatively more positive explicit evaluations and relatively more negative implicit evaluations of African Americans (i.e., greater explicit-implicit evaluative discrepancies) would engage in motivated reasoning, producing bias against group members. In Study 1, explicit-implicit evaluative discrepancies predicted setting higher standards for competence in domains where Whites are expected to excel and establishing lower standards for competence in domains where African Americans are expected to excel. In Study 2, larger explicit-implicit evaluative discrepancies predicted greater biased assimilation and attitude polarization when an African American (vs. a White) author presented a counterattitudinal message. Thus, having inconsistent explicit and imp...

http://allenmcconnell.net/pdfs/racialEIEDs-SocCog-2014.pdf

Having explicit-implicit evaluation discrepancies triggers race-based motivated reasoning

http://allenmcconnell.net/pdfs/ischronic-JESP-2013.pdf

Tonya M. Shoda

Papers

Friends with benefits: On the positive consequences of pet ownership.

The Self as a Collection of Multiple Self-Aspects: Structure, Development, Operation, and Implications

The Social Cognition of the Self

Having explicit-implicit evaluation discrepancies triggers race-based motivated reasoning

Interpersonal sensitivity and self-knowledge: Those chronic for trustworthiness are more accurate at detecting it in others☆