Empathy and Empiricism

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Empathy and Empiricism

• Constructing our relationships with other species
• Psychologising 2006

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• The sheep are different according to breed, as
  well as individually. The two Southdowns, Tubs
  and Erica, are amiable, homely, stout and chatty.
  They wear black flowery hats like Grandma Giles,
  and sensible shoes with a strap and a button.
• Bambi and Beauty, the languorous Leicester
  Longwools, are also friendly, but in a more
  Isadora Duncan sort of way, and will even follow
  you around, looking lissom and lovely, and
  perhaps just a little ethereally distant.
• The Southdown/Suffolk crosses are warier. One
  of them is a real trial at shearing or pedicure
  time. She splays her legs out as far as
  possible, like a 1950s occasional table, and
  will not be moved her sister feigns co-operation
  for a long time, then suddenly bolts.
• Bella is just normal. Rather too normal, we
  sometimes think. Perhaps shes repressed.
• Delilah, on the other hand, has definitely got a
  wildcat gene in there somewhere. She very nearly
  climbed over a hurdle once and actually snapped
  at me when I grabbed her. I slapped her face,
  the trollop.
• Griffin (Chas), 2000

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Alternative conceptual frameworks

• Objectivist and positivist
• Mechanistic
• Properties
• Atomistic
• Quantitative
• Rational
• Cognition is hidden

• Subjectivist or Experiential
• Empathic
• Patterns of interaction
• Relativistic
• Qualitative
• Experiential
• Cognition is embodied

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The problem of subjectivity

• Subjective phenomena cannot be observed
  objectively in animals so it is idle either to
  claim or to deny their existence. Tinbergen

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Metaphor and rhetoric

• Rational versus emotional (sceptics vs believers
  sentimental vs hard-headed)
• Distinction between lay and professional
  knowledge (naïve vs scientific accounts)
• Empirical vs Empathic accounts (rational,
  behavioural terms more accurate than emotional
  mentalistic terms)
• Immersion and detachment (detachment and lack of
  relationship (or constrained relationship) vs
  participation in relationship)

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• "I am sitting close to the bird table on the
  lawn. New Robin comes up to me and hints for
  food. Dobs shoots down from his high perch like
  a flashing meteor, in fury striking the intruder.
  They roll together on the lawn, feet
  interlocked, the grip of their clutching claws
  firm and evenly matched. At last one bird gets
  his beak at the other's throat. This seems a
  death struggle, so I separate the furious
  Redbreasts. But Dobs' blood is up, his flaming
  eyes match his fiery-coloured breast, and he at
  once attacks again. Loud hand-clapping at their
  ears frightens them apart. New Robin retires
  behind the macro-carpus tree with a few desultory
  "tic ticks." Dobs seems to think himself the
  victor, for he flattens his ruffled feathers and
  putting on his pleased expression, flies to his
  perch to sing sweetly, all shrillness gone from
  his voice."
• Extract from Birds as Individuals by Len
  Howard (1952)

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• We quantified comb use by territorial males
  during model presentation experiments, assuming
  that males responded to models as they would to
  rival males. The total amount of time that males
  displayed their combs (Combs Up) during model
  presentation experiments varied from 0-100 and
  the extent to which males displayed their combs
  (Combs Up) in this intra-sexual context varied
  with behaviour. Combs were displayed for a
  relatively large proportion of time when a male
  was Alert and Approaching the model, but tended
  to be concealed when Circling, Standing,
  Attacking or Retreating. Males Circled the model
  within 2m almost all of the time during these
  presentations, usually alternating Circling with
  Standing, and Attacks were always launched from
  close range (lt1m)
• Extract from Context and consequences of comb
  displays by male rock ptarmigan by Karen Holder
  and Robert Montgomerie (1993), published in
  Animal Behaviour (Vol. 45)

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Accounts of animal personality

• Objective accounts
• Explicit personality theories
• Quantitative, focused approach
• Behavioural ratings
• Attempts to tap discrete traits
• More nomothetic

• Subjective accounts
• Implicit personality theories
• Qualitative, holistic approach
• Trait ratings
• Attempts to tap behavioural style
• More idiographic

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Animal personality research

• Research on wide range of species (e.g. apes,
  dogs, horses, octopus, hyenas, pigs etc etc)
• Gosling John suggest FFM (openness,
  extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness,
  conscientiousness) dominance can be applied to
  many species, but especially E, A and N.
• Cross-species similarities in social behaviour
  suggest evolution of similar personality traits
• However, huge impact of human perception of
  animals on attribution of personality, emotion
  and awareness

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Attitudes to animals

• Perceptions of animals structured by the cultural
  and social boundaries we draw between ourselves
  and other species
• We view animals from reference point of ourselves
  an anthropocentric view
• In Victorian era, bees were thought to embody the
  virtues of busyness, community, intelligence and
  self-sacrifice and so considered Gods
  creatures.
• Cats were thought to be less amenable to
  domestication, were more nocturnal and could be
  deceitful. Their attitude was less subservient
  than the dogs and so less favoured

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Personality in captive chimpanzees
Interviews
Repertory grid
Personality rating scale
Content of relationships frequency and duration
measures of proximity, grooming, play,
conflict association patterns Quality of
relationships reciprocity of affiliative and
agonistic interactions Patterning of
relationships detailed analyses of dyadic and
polyadic conflict episodes to measure
patterning of conflict interactions
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Patterning of relationships
Content of relationships
Quality of relationships
Social Structure
Patterning of interactions
Context of interactions
Relationships
Interactions
Content of interaction
Quality of interaction
Diversity of interaction
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An empathic approach

• Empathy is the direct apprehension of the
  intent, project, attitude, and experience of the
  othera general access to the intended world of
  the other. Shapiro (1990)
• Meaning of behaviour is an aspect of
  relationship, and cannot be considered in
  isolation.

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Mind as function of social interaction
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Mind in relationship
Intention of human and dog is expressed in the
tension on the leash it is jointly experienced
and expressed in bodily movement
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Embodied cognition

• Thought can never be wholly private as it arises
  out of the body (Lakoff, Johnson, Varela)
• Abstract, linguistic categories are structured by
  bodily experience
• Thinking and emotion are not separate (e.g.
  Kendrick conspecific recognition in sheep tied
  to emotional significance)
• Reject the subject/object, or mind/body split in
  favour of experiential or embodied cognitive
  perspective

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A multi-perspectival approach

• Conceptual frameworks are partial (analogical)
  perspectives on experience
• Need to move beyond dualisms in thinking about
  animal awareness can we have a
  ethnomethodological approach?
• Examination of philosophical assumptions, and
  active metaphors (and rhetoric) promotes a more
  reflexive approach

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References

• Dolins, F.L. (Ed.) (1999). Attitudes to animals
  views in animal welfare. Cambridge CUP.
• Arluke, A. Sanders, C. (1996). Regarding
  animals. Philadelphia Temple University Press.
  
• Lakoff, G. Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we
  live by. Chicago and London University of
  Chicago Press.
• Mitchell, R.W., Thompson, N.S. Miles, H. L.
  (1997). Anthropomorphism, anecdotes, and animals.
  New York State University of New York Press.
• Serpell, J. (1996). In the company of animals a
  study of human-animal relationships. Cambridge
  CUP.
• Shepard, P. (1997). The others how animals made
  us human. Shearwater Books.
• Sanders, C.R. (1993) Understanding dogs
  Caretakers attributions of mindedness in
  canine-human relationships. Journal of
  Contemporary Ethnography, 22, 2, 205-226.

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References

• Wieder, D.L. (1980). Behavioristic operationalism
  and the life-world chimpanzees and chimpanzee
  researchers in face-to-face interaction.
  Sociological Inquiry, 50, 75-103
• Serpell, J.A. (2002). Anthropomorphism and
  anthropomorphic selection beyond the cute
  response. Society and Animals, 10, 4 available
  at http//www.psyeta.org/sa/sa10.4/serpell.shtml
• Podberscek, A. L. Gosling, S. D. (2000).
  Personality research on pets and their owners
  conceptual issues and review. In Podberscek, A.
  L., Paul, E. S. Serpell, J. A. (eds) Companion
  Animals and Us. Cambridge Cambridge University
  Press.
• Gosling, S. D. John, O. P. (1999).
  Personality dimensions in nonhuman animals a
  cross-species review. Current Directions in
  Psychological Science, 8, 69-75.
• Gosling, S. D. (2001). From mice to men What
  can we learn about personality from animal
  research? Psychological Bulletin, 127, 1, 45-86.
• Kidd, A. H. Kidd, R. M. (1980). Personality
  characteristics and preferences in pet ownership.
  Psychological Reports, 46, 939-949.

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References

• Perrine, R. M. Osbourne, H. L. (1998).
  Personality characteristics of dog and cat
  persons. Anthrozoos, 11, 33-40.
• De Waal, F. B. M. (1998) Revised ed. Chimpanzee
  Politics Power and Sex among Apes. Baltimore
  Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Ritvo, H (1987) The Animal Estate The English
  and other creatures in the Victorian Age.
  Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press.
• Lawrence, E. (1993) The sacred bee, the filthy
  pig and the bat out of hell animal symbolism as
  cognitive biophilia. In The Biophilia Hypothesis,
  by S.R. Kellert E.O. Wilson (Eds.) Island
  Press/Shearwater