Abstract

Recent research has shown a relationship between pet ownership and certain mental health variables. In this study, the relationship between pet-seeking behavior and personality characteristics was examined. The subjects were 33 individuals seeking to adopt a pet at a local humane society and a comparison group of 16 individuals who were not interested in possessing a pet. Information was collected on a number of demographics including age, sex, marital status, education, number of minor children in the home, and prior and current pet ownership. The NEO Personality Inventory was utilized to gather personality characteristics. The hypothesis under study was that pet-seeking individuals would score more positively than non-pet seeking individuals on self-report measures of psychological health. This was not confirmed. Of the 20 personality facets of the NEO, only two were dimensions of significant difference between the pet-seeking and non-pet seeking groups. on both the values and excitement-seeking facets, the pet-seeking group evidenced higher mean score.

Notes

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Graduation Date

1988

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Blau, Burton I.

Degree

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree Program

Clinical Psychology

Format

PDF

Pages

60 p.

Language

English

Rights

Public Domain

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Identifier

DP0025783

Subjects

Arts and Sciences -- Dissertations, Academic; Dissertations, Academic -- Arts and Sciences

Accessibility Status

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