The Psychological Advantages of Pet Ownership
The country has around 77 million dogs and 93 million cats, suggesting that pets are both pervasive and vital in people's lives.
Furthermore, it is widely considered that dogs play an important social role in their owners' life and that a dog or cat can help with social isolation. Although pets can bring many immediate, practical benefits to their owners (such as frightening away burglars or eliminating a vermin issue), there is some evidence that pets can also have good best psychologist near me impacts on individuals.
What Studies Show About Pet Owners
According to research, those who have had a heart attack in the previous year who own a pet are less likely to die within the next year than those who do not own a pet (1% vs. 7%, respectively) (Friedman & Thomas, 1995). Medicare patients who had dogs had fewer doctor visits than patients who did not have pets (Siegel, 1990), and HIV-positive males who had pets reported less depression than similar men who did not have pets (Siegel, Angulo, Detels, Wesch, & Mullen, 1999).
Another study discovered that people with significant physical disabilities (e.g., traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury) who were given a service dog improved their well-being (e.g., self-esteem, locus of control) within 6 months, whereas the control group on the waiting list did not.
One reason why people may benefit from pet ownership is that pets can provide social support, and multiple studies show that higher social support leads to better psychological and physical health (e.g., Uchino, Cacioppo, & Kiecolt-Glaser, 1996). Furthermore, higher levels of social support improve cardiovascular, endocrine, and immunological functioning (Uchino et al., 1996), whereas lower levels of social support increase mortality rates (House et al., 1988).
Many pet owners regard their pets as “close others” in their lives. 50% of pet owners consider their pet to be “as much a part of the family as any other person in the household,” 30% sleep in their bed with their pet, and 25% believe their pet is a better listener than their spouse (Associated Press, 2009, 2010).
Numerous studies have shown that being mentally close to others can promote happiness and well-being, whereas feeling socially isolated or separated from others can have negative implications (Williams, 2007). So, if pets are like close relatives to their owners, they may bring psychological benefits to the owner in the same way that a close relative would.
Recent Pet Ownership Research
Three recent research sought to determine how and why people benefit psychologically from having pets. Their findings are as follows:
Everyday people gain from pet ownership in terms of well-being, and these benefits are amplified when the pet also meets the owners' social needs.
Pet owners frequently report higher levels of well-being and self-esteem, as well as better personality traits (e.g., conscientiousness) and more positive attachment patterns (i.e., less scared, less preoccupied).
Pets who met their owners' social needs better were associated with lower levels of sadness, loneliness, self-esteem, and contentment in their owners. These advantages were not contingent on the owner's human social resources.
People who gain much from their pets are also closer to other significant people in their lives and receive more, not less, support from them. This is also known as the complement hypothesis, which states that dogs supplement rather than compete with other sources of social support. Pets are not substitutes for other forms of social support; rather, they provide additional assistance.
