Animal emotionsAgnė Bružaitė Psbd08-1

Content

• Main points;

• Frameworks for viewing emotions;

• Examples of animal emotions.

Emotions Feelings that generally have

both physiological and cognitive elements that

influence behavior.

Can they feel?

Jeremy Bentham (1789):

"The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk but Can they suffer?"

What do they feel?

No great cognitive powers or intellectual effort are needed to feel:

• Pain;• Fear;• Empathy;• Happines;• Sadness;• Love and other emotions.

Frameworks for viewing emotions

I. The functional approach examining the role of emotions in

human behavior and then asking whether the function is the same in humans and non-humans.

?

Frameworks for viewing emotions

Emotions has three stages:

1. Evaluation of an event;

2. Action readiness;

3. Physiological changes, facial expression and then behavioural action.

Frameworks for viewing emotions

II. The mechanistic approach:Exploring mechanisms underlying emotions,

Seeing whether they are similar,

Understanding what changes both physiologically and behaviourally.

Empathy

• One female elephant, Babyl, has been injured for years, but the other members of the group have never left her behind.

Grief

• Magpies show a grief, when one of their group dies, by bringing a grass or standing vigil.

Gratitude

• After releasing the whale from the traps, she showed gratitude by flapping around and nuzzling each of her saviours.

Enjoyment

• Rats "enjoy" being tickled;

• It was found that the rats squealed seven times more while being tickled.

Depression

• Research suggests that canines can experience negative emotions in a similar manner to people.

Conclusion

• For all species emotions serve like “social glue”. They also permit individuals to behave flexibly in a wide variety of situations. Humans are not the only ones who need to do these things.

References• Robert S. Feldman “Understanding

Psychology”. 8th edition. 2006.• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Emotion_in_animals (2009 05 10)• http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/

science/17chimp.html?pagewanted=print (2009 05 10)

• http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2003333119_animals01.html (2009 05 10)

Gratitude

Thank you