Presence of human friends and pet dogs as moderators of autonomic responses to stress in women.

Abstract

Autonomic responses were measured while 45 adult women performed a standard experimental stress task in the laboratory with only the experimenter present and 2 weeks later at home in the presence of a female friend, pet dog, or neither. Results demonstrated that autonomic reactivity was moderated by the presence of a companion, the nature of whom was critical to the size and direction of the effect. Ss in the friend condition exhibited higher physiological reactivity and poorer performance than subjects in the control and pet conditions. Ss in the pet condition showed less physiological reactivity during stressful tasks than Ss in the other conditions. The results are interpreted in terms of the degree to which friends and pets are perceived as evaluative during stressful task performance. Physiological reactivity was consistent across the laboratory and field settings. Because individuals who experience pronounced, frequent, or enduring autonomically mediated cardiovascular responses to stress may be at risk for the development of cardiovascular disease (Clarkson, Manuck, & Kaplan, 1986; Manuck & Krantz, 1986), psychological variables that mediate or moderate autonomic reactivity to stress are important to consider. Nearly all research on psychological moderators of autonomic reactivity has focused on personality variables, such as coronary-prone behavior type, hostility, anger, aggression, anxiety, and denial (Houston, 1986). Relatively little attention has been paid to social psychological constructs such as attitudes and relationships. This study focused on the presence of others as a potential moderating variable in stressful situations. Specifically, we were interested in the degree to which potentially evaluative and nonevaluative others could act as buffers of autonomic reactivity during a stressful situation. In addition, we were interested in a comparison of laboratory and field sites. Social facilitation theory (Zajonc, 1965,1980) posits that the presence of others increases arousal, which in turn increases or decreases performance as a function of the degree to which task requirements are based on well-learned dominant responses. Zajonc's (1965) social facilitation formulation posited that the mere presence of others increases an individual's arousal and affects performance. Recently, Cacioppo, Rourke, Marshall-Goodell, Tassinary, and Baron (1990) clarified the impact of the presence of others on arousal by demonstrating that the presence of others does not increase basal levels of physiologi-This research was supported by Grant BRSG S07 RR 07066 awarded by the Biomedical Research Support Program, National Institutes of Health, to Karen M. Allen. We express our appreciation to several anonymous reviewers for their comments on a previous draft of this article.

Pet Dogs Improve Family Functioning and Reduce Anxiety in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…It is possible that the introduction of a pet dog helps prevent obsessive behaviors, particularly repetitive actions that are characteristic of many individuals with ASD (Turner 1999), by breaking the cycle through providing a stimulating point of interest (e.g., by playing a game with the dog). It is also possible that by stroking the dog the child engages in repetitive behaviors which are viewed as less problematic by their parent; as well, stroking can bring direct physiological benefits (e.g., reductions in physical stress responses; Allen et al 1991). However, we did not collect data on the types of child-dog interactions, therefore it is not possible to support these speculations.…”

“…This may be achieved through reducing stress in the family, and the potential for pet dogs to reduce parental stress has recently been demonstrated (Wright et al 2015). A study by Allen et al (1991) showed that stress levels reduced more in the presence of a dog compared with a friend, indicting the unique processes involved in human-animal interactions as opposed to human-human family interactions. Additionally, the dog represents a common talking point, a stress release, and a shared love which helps unite the family.…”

Social Support, Social Intimacy, and Cardiovascular Reactions to Acute Psychological Stress

“…Accordingly, women are most likely to feel evaluated by other women similar to them -their female friends. Empirical support for this notion can be found in a study where women with a female friend present had higher reactivity than when tested alone (32), which was attributed to the friends' supporting behaviour increasing evaluation apprehension and self-consciousness in the participants. Similarly, women receiving support from a female friend who was able to monitor their performance exhibited similar magnitude reactivity to when they were tested alone; when the friend was not able to monitor their performance (low evaluation potential) SBP reactivity was attenuated (23).…”

“…These studies suggest that women feel evaluated by females, and particularly female friends, when they are in a position where they can monitor their performance. In this previous research (23,32), women were tested only with female friends, making it impossible to discern whether women would or would not feel evaluated in the presence of supportive male friends. In a study where no overall differences in reactivity emerged between supported and unsupported participants, women who rated themselves as highly supported by their female friend exhibited greater DBP reactivity, whereas the opposite pattern emerged for men (33).…”

Review on Benefits of Owning Companion Dogs among Older Adults

“…Companion dogs were often found to bring about benefits such as nonevaluative support that could act as buffer for stress (Allen, Blascovich, Tomaka and Kelsey, 1991), reduction in fear of being a victim of crime (Serpell, 1990) and staving off social needs deficits due to rejections (McConnell, Brown, Shoda, Stayton and Martin, 2011) to their owners. The importance of companion animals such as dogs and cats are valued in many parts of the world and researches have been conducted in various countries.…”