Are people with dogs more approachable than people without dogs (tentative hypothesis) - Research Paper Example

? Are people with dogs more approachable than people without dogs? Today’s life is full of pressure from work and the increasing pressures from the rising cost of living which has resulted increased level of stress among the people together with stress related disorders. Various ways of reducing stress has been explored by experts all over the world one of them including owning a pet. Having reduced levels of stress comes with accrued benefits such as being more approachable and attractive which improves a person’s social standing. In the study described below, we try to find out whether owning a dog makes one more approachable. The study involves carrying out a pilot study on a sample of 100 persons 50 of them being dog owners and 50 being non dog owners. The subjects are required to respond to mailed questionnaires. The results for the study showed that dog owners are seen to be more approachable than non dog owners and this is consistent with previous studies conducted on the same subject. Introduction In the world today expanding our social network has become hard. This has been as a result of the pressures that people face from the economy making them work for longer hours and more alienated from other people in the society. Finding the right partner in the dating arena has also become increasingly hard as area of physical interactions continue being scarce day by day. Psychologist and other experts have tried to explore ways which can improve social interactions. Owning a pet such as dog has been seen to make a person be approachable and thus increase their chances of meeting and making new friends and acquaintances. Research conducted in this area argue that the reason why people with pet are seen to be approachable is because a pet gives people a reason to stop and exchange pleasantly as they get a common ground to start a conversation on (Arluke & Sanders 2008). As such, people who own pets especially dogs which have to be taken for walks regularly have a great chance of meeting new people thereby getting a good chance of expanding their social network compared to people who do not own dogs. Moreover, the same research shows that owning a pet helps a person cope better with stress and actually lifts their moods. Psychology has shown us that people who seem to be happy with their lives are easy to approach compared to those who are always gloomy and engrossed in their problems and sorrows. Besides making people more approachable, there are other benefits accrued to owning a pet that make a person happier and satisfied with life. Among these benefits include getting rid of loneliness. Pets provide support where one cannot get the support of fellow human beings and gives companionship. An interesting finding in a research showed that nursing home residents were seen to be less lonely when they got a visit from their pet dogs compared to when they spent time with other human beings. Besides, since one has to walk their Dog, it encourages them to engage in outdoor activities and exercise which is good for health. Surprising, pets also help in reducing blood pressure levels. Another research also showed that In New York, stockbrokers who owned dogs reported lesser cases of hypertension compared to those who do not. This is considering that they work in highly uncertain industry that is bound to give them a lot of pressure. A recent survey carried out by the Dog Trust showed that 85% of people who own dogs are perceived as being approachable. The same survey also showed that among the people interviewed in the survey, 60% expressed that they were attracted to dog owners. In order to verify that owning a dog does actually make one to be more approachable, we conducted a pilot survey described below. The hypotheses for our research were: H1 Owning a dog makes one more approachable H0 Owning a dog does not make one more approachable Methodology In our survey, we interviewed through written questionnaire a sample of 50 adult Dog owners and 50 adults not dog owners to establish the level of approachability. We targeted the subjects who had acquired new dogs in the period of the last one year and included an equal number of both sexes. For the group who owned dogs, those who had dogs the previous years were not included in the study since they would not be in a position to give the information needed for this study. A single person from each household was chooses to take part in the survey. These were the people who spent the most time with the dog pet. We sent prepaid envelopes to out subjects. Those who owned dogs were supposed to have spent form six months to one year with the dog. The other group had to fulfill the condition of never owning a dog. The questionnaire was divided into two portions. We had two types of questionnaires one addressed to the dog owners and the other to non-owners. The first portion of the dog owner’s questionnaire sought to test the level of attachment that the dog owners had with their dogs. It had questions ranging from very attached, moderately attached and not particular attached. The second part tested the ability of these people to make new friends. It needed the subjects to indicate the number of new people that they got to interact with every week after acquiring the new dog. They were also asked to give the number of strangers they got to interact with before owning the dog (Pease & Pease 2008). The questionnaires directed to the people who never owned dogs also had two parts. The first part sought to examine how approachable they rated people who owned dogs. The responses ranged from repulsive, fairly approachable and approachable. The second part sought to examine how approachable those people without dogs were. As such, they were asked to indicate the number of times they interacted with strangers in a week on average. The analysis of the dataset collected from this survey was analyzed using the SPSS software. The result of the comparative data which was again analysis by using the Man Whitney- U test and the results given in tables attached to the appendices. Results In this study, the results are expected to show that dog owners who reported to have greater attachment with the dogs reported a higher number of strangers that they interacted with in a week. This is because the more attached a person is to a pet, the more they are expected to exhibit greater benefits accrued to owning a dog. It is also expected that the non-dog owners are less approachable than the dog owners indicated by a lower number of strangers that they interact with in a week. This number is expected to be closely related to the number of dog owners who reported to have a lesser attachment with their dogs. Discussion It is incredible that people can meet dating partners with the help of a dog. But as the research has shown, there is no doubt that owning a dog pet gives a person a higher chance of meeting new people who one can possibly get intimate with. It is important to note that the level of attachment that one has with the dog increases their approachability and makes them more attractive (Stephenson 2004). What makes owning a dog an easy way of meeting new people is that unlike human beings who hesitate to extend pleasantries with strangers, a dog will introduce itself to a strange puppy without any hesitation. Moreover, one has to routinely give their dog a walk in most cases following the same route. As such, it is common to bump with the same people every day and it would appear rude to pass them by without saying hello. It thus becomes very easy to make new friends. They would even start playing and teasing each other as if they are old buddies. The owners then end up interacting with each other and this creates an avenue for making new friends (Glanz & Phillips 2004). Moreover, having any pet including a dog increases make one to be seen as an attractive person because they are seen as caring and easy to hang out with. This research however has its own limitation. It is hard to study the effect of owning a person attractiveness or approachability of a person. This is because there are several other attributes that determine approachability such as the natural character of a person. There are people who are naturally welcoming while others are not. It could thus be possible that a person may be approachable for other reasons other than just owning a dog (Wilkes 2009). Moreover, people are drawn to others by different attributes. As such, their measure of how one is approachable is very diverse making it hard to quantify this attribute. There is also the limitation of not having a fully representative sample because of cost implications (Knapp 2000). For the sample to be representative enough, a large sample had to be taken which may not be possible because of cost constrains. Nevertheless, for this survey, it was observed that owning a dog increases the level of approachability of person. This is because the dog owners who reported to have a greater level of attachment with their dogs reported to have met a greater number of strangers and interacted with them in a week. They were also reposted to be perceived as approachable by their counterparts who did not won any pets (Gunter 2000). Our H1 was thus concluded to be true. This area has little information since only a few studies have been conducted concerning this topic. In order to increase the body of knowledge in this area, future researches need to focus on the form of interactions between a dog and the dog owner and how this affects the owner in general. This is also need to compare how owning a dog improves a person social interaction in comparison with owning other pets such as cats. References Between the species: A reader in human-animal relationships. Boston, Mass: Allyn and Bacon. Glanz, L., & Phillips, R. H. (2004). Guy gets girl girl gets guy. Garden City Park, N.Y: Square One Publishers. Gunter, B. (2000). Pets and people: The psychology of pet ownership. London: Whurr. Knapp, C.( 2000). Pack of two: The intricate bond between people and dogs. Thorndike, Me: Thorndike Press. McMorris, M., & Houston, P. (2009). Woman's Best Friend: Women Writers on the Dogs in Their Lives. New York: Seal Press. Pease, A., & Pease, B. (2008). The definitive book of body language. New York: Bantam Books.. Stephenson, N. (2004). Quicksilver. London: Arrow. Wilkes, J. K. (2009). The role of companion animals in counseling and psychology: Discovering their use in the therapeutic process. Springfield, Ill: Charles C. Thomas. Appendices approachability attractiveness Strongly attached Dog owners 85% 60% Mildly attached dig owners 70% 58% Non-dog owners 50% 50% Read More