Benefits of Pet Ownership on the Psyche
The fact that there are 93 million cats and 77 million dogs in the country proves how common and significant pets are in people's lives.
Additionally, it's a prevalent belief that having a dog or cat can help with social isolation and that pets have a huge social impact on their owners' life. There is some evidence that pets can have good educational psychology on individuals in addition to the numerous immediate, material advantages they can offer their owners (e.g., scaring away burglars, lowering a vermin problem, etc.).
What Studies Show About Pet Owners
According to research, pet owners had a lower mortality rate than non-owners of pets among persons who had a heart attack in the previous year (1% vs. 7%, respectively) (Friedman & Thomas, 1995). According to Siegel (1990), Medicare patients with pets saw their doctors less frequently than Medicare patients without pets, while men who were HIV-positive but did not own dogs felt less depressed than men who did.
Another study discovered that recipients of service dogs for people with severe physical disabilities (such as traumatic brain injury or spinal cord damage) saw gains in their wellbeing (such as self-esteem and locus of control) after 6 months, in contrast to the wait-list control group.
Pets may serve as a source of social support, and multiple studies have shown that having more social support is beneficial for one's mental and physical health (e.g., Uchino, Cacioppo, & Kiecolt-Glaser, 1996). This is one advantage of pet ownership that people may experience. According to Uchino et al. (1996), increased social support also enhances immunological, endocrine, and cardiovascular health, while decreased social support raises mortality rates (House et al., 1988).
Pet owners frequently refer to their animals as “close others” in their lives. According to surveys conducted by the Associated Press in 2009 and 2010, 25% of pet owners believe their animal friend is a better listener than their partner, and 50% of pet owners see their animal as “as much a part of the family as any other person in the household” (Associated Press, 2009, 2010).
Numerous research have shown that having psychologically intimate relationships with others can increase happiness and well-being, while having negative effects from feeling excluded from or socially alienated from others (Williams, 2007). Pets may therefore offer psychological benefits to their owners just like close friends or family members would if they are like close friends or family to them.
recent pet ownership studies
Three recent research looked into the reasons behind and the psychological benefits of pet ownership. They discovered the following:
Everyday individuals benefit from having pets, and these benefits are amplified when the animal also satisfies the owners' social needs.
Owners of pets frequently report higher levels of happiness and self-worth, as well as healthier personality traits like conscientiousness and more positive attachment patterns like reduced fear and preoccupation.
Less melancholy, less loneliness, more self-esteem, and greater enjoyment in their owners were all associated with pets that better met their owners' social requirements. These advantages existed separately from the owner's human and social resources.
Pet owners are also more connected to other significant individuals in their lives and receive support from them on an increased, not decreased, basis. Pets complement other sources of social support rather than competing with them, which is also known as the complement hypothesis. Pets provide additional support rather than acting as a substitute when other social support systems are insufficient.
