Researchers say owners of pets can consider them an extension of their own identity – an important thing to bear in mind during disaster responses.
Joshua Trigg, Kirrilly Thompson, Bradley Smith and Pauleen Bennett suggested that preservation of each unique and composite pet-owner identity should be considered by those in disaster planning.
“In order to understand why different pet owners think and behave the way they do in regard to disaster threat, we need to look beyond the boundaries of pet-attachment and basic pet-owner ‘similarity’ explanations,” they wrote in the journal, Social and Personality Psychology Compass.
The researchers, from Central Queensland University and Melbourne’s La Trobe University, said the widespread tendency of modern-day pet owners to self-identify with their companion animals psychologically, symbolically and relationally showed how the constructed identities of animal and owner were strongly linked.
This, they said, became particularly apparent during natural disasters.
The researchers set out in their review to discuss the new concept of the pet-owning self in relation to three self-psychology perspectives – self-extension, symbolic interactionism and selfobject relations.
“We argue for the importance of acknowledging the powerful intersubjectivity inherent to pet keeping, the inseparability of perceived pet identity from owners’ experiences of the self and that preserving the cohesion of the two is an essential consideration for owners’ psychological wellbeing when managing the integrated pet/owner in the face of risks posed by disaster and other hazards.”
Research showed that companion animals were set apart from other possessions and rose above objective value, being emotionally evocative as well as being irreplaceable. Some owners ascribe human and even spiritual qualities to their pets.
Discussing horses, they said some owners reported experiencing a sense of unity and intuitive connection during interactions with their animals in equestrian activities – an extension of self.
Companion animals, they noted, maintained a sense of self-cohesion, engendering feelings of unconditional acceptance through calming and reassuring responses. They can also engender a sense of twinship – an intense feeling of mutual understanding, oneness and intimacy in perceiving that one’s identity is fundamentally similar to that of the animal.
Such feeling have been seen by researchers in people’s relationships with horses, dogs, cats and rabbits, they noted.
“During a disaster, those seeing their pets as selfobjects may be unlikely to separate from their animals, or might resist leaving them behind.”
Leaving animals behind can destabilise their owner and impair their psychological wellbeing.
The identities of companion animals, owners and their composites mattered in disaster contexts, the study team said.
“To date, the body of human–animal studies and disaster research has concentrated on the influence of pet-attachment relationships, and the roles of companion animals in the family unit.
“However, it is becoming clear that focusing on the ‘bond’ or attachment to pets is only one facet of the relationship,” they wrote.
They continued: “It is through psychological examination of such facets of the pet-owner identity, as well as associated values and behavioural propensities, that we can advance understanding of how pet-owner and, more broadly, human–non-human animal connections shape experiences of disaster events.
“We believe their roles in influencing disaster resilience and vulnerability, and relevance to physical safety and mental wellbeing of animal owners, offer a promising approach to understanding the behaviour of owners during disasters.”
Trigg, J., Thompson, K., Smith, B., and Bennett, P. (2016) An Animal Just Like Me: The Importance of Preserving the Identities of Companion-Animal Owners in Disaster Contexts. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 10: 26–40. doi: 10.1111/spc3.12233.
The full report can be read here.