Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: J. Anthony Stallins, Florida State University, College of Social Sciences, Dept. of Geography. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 7, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains xiii, 284 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1986. / Bibliography: leaves 296-314. / Photocopy. / Microfilm. / xii, 314 leaves, bound 29 cm

Thesis (MA (Research Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

Negative reinforcement can be a powerful tool for behavior analysts, yet it is often overlooked as a treatment method. Pryor (1999) outlines a method for approaching a "timid" animal using a combination of negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement. When the animal stands still, the human operates a clicker, and then retreats from the animal. Gradually, the human moves closer to the animal through the clicking and retreating shaping process. Once the human is standing close enough, food may be offered as a positive reinforcer, and the negative reinforcer is canceled out. The purpose of this study was to experimentally demonstrate the click-retreat technique with cows. A multiple-baseline design across subjects was used to test this technique. Results show that the click and retreat technique was effective. Results are discussed in terms of the difference between the click-retreat technique and systematic desensitization.

This study sought to understand the culture-sharing group of people working within the shelter area of a Pacific Northwest animal shelter through the Ethnography of Communication. About 63% of households in the United States live with a companion animal (Risley-Curtis et al., 2006). Recently, there has been a shift toward closer examination into the ways in which humans interact with animals, particularly companion animals. The guiding questions of this study were: RQ1: What are the cultural communication forms performed in the context of the humane society? RQ2: How do shelter workers communicate about companion animals? RQ3: What cultural meanings are instantiated through communication in this context? This qualitative research approach included 40 hours of participant observation, individual interviews and an analysis of a set of documents and artifacts. Utilizing the Ethnography of Communication components, thematic and pattern analysis, findings revealed use of three main communication forms within the shelter: verbal, written and nonverbal communication and the overarching key theme of relational bonding occurring within an animal-centric organization among 4 relational categories: A. Shelter animals and shelter animals, B. Shelter animals and shelter workers, C. Shelter workers and shelter workers and D. Shelter workers and the public. Processes leading to relational bonding are delineated including detailed speech as well as aspects of "broken bonds" and euthanasia and it's effects within a "no-kill" organization.

Ce travail de thèse se présente comme une enquête sur les modalités de l’agir-ensemble interspécifique. L’idée qui a présidé à sa mise en œuvre repose sur la volonté d’élargir les questionnements classiques en sociologie de l’action (comment décrire le vivre-ensemble, quelle forme prend l’ordre social) et en linguistique (comment communique-t-on intelligiblement) à un objet sortant de leurs préoccupations traditionnelles : les interactions sociales entre hommes et chiens. Pour cela, nous analysons des données recueillies lors d’interactions ordinaires et quotidiennes entre chiots en éducation et éducateurs canins, ou entre chiens-guides d’aveugles et personnes non-voyantes.Il s’agit d’un travail empirique de recherche sur les ressources utilisées par hommes et chiens pour agir ensemble et communiquer. Pour cela, nous montrons que les actions communes dans lesquelles ils s’engagent sont réalisées de manière ordonnée, et sont séquentiellement organisées – de sorte qu’elles sont descriptibles avec une certaine systématicité. Cette systématicité, qui exhibe le caractère ordonné des interactions, est traitée comme l’indice d’une forme de socialité qui s’incarne dans l’ajustement mutuel. De ce point de vue, cette thèse se présente également comme un travail théorique sur les formes de la socialité interspécifique. De manière incidente, elle se veut en outre le lieu d’une réflexion épistémologique sur la prise en charge par les sciences humaines et la linguistique d’un objet par tradition réservé aux sciences dites naturelles. / « Non human » is an analytical category that has now entered the realm of sociology. The fact that domestic animals might be agents, and relevant interactants has been evoked and investigated in the most recent literature. The originality of our study does not lie in these arguments. It takes them for granted, and analyzes with systematicity some of the resources used by dogs and their human co-interactants (be they educators or visually impaired persons) to communicate with intelligibility, and make each other’s actions mutually accountable. The study is structured by a leading question: what kind of sociality is at stake between dogs and humans ?The dissertation is divided into two introductory theoretical chapters, and three analytical parts. The first chapter establishes the state of the art, as far as human/animal interaction is concerned. After briefly commenting on the Animal Studies and its opposition to the so-called cartesian position, it ends by introducing the ethnomethodological program as a relevant approach to shed a new light on my object. The second chapter offers an epistemological reflection on the analytical ‘naturalist’ framework worth adopting in order to investigate dog-human sociality. It gives an occasion to discuss the transcription format usually used in CA as an adequate frame to shed light on the sequentiality of actions, as well as on conditional relevance. The three next chapters are grounded on these reflections and are more strictly empirical and analytical. Chapter 3 describes the resources used by dogs and humans to interact with intelligibility and to share perceptive knowledge. It analyzes procedures of shared attention, and mutual orientation (for instance, by mutually orienting toward a relevant object for the ongoing action). Chapter 4 goes further into the analysis of participants’ procedural competencies, and observes the systematicity of sequential formats. Chapter 5 is grounded on these analyses and addresses a “topos” as far as human-animal interaction is concerned: issues of cognition. Drawing on the EM program, it proposes a praxeological approach to cognition that does not focus on dog’s capacities or skills but on the way ordinary practices of practical reasoning are accomplished.The PhD dissertation offers an empirical work on human-animal modalities of living and acting together. It aims at showing that mutual actions participants engage in are orderly accomplished and sequentially organized – and therefore descriptible with systematicity.This systematicity, by exhibiting the orderly character of interactions, is treated as a cue of a form of sociality, embodied in mutual adjustment. In this regard, this thesis offers also some theoretical thoughts on forms of interspecific sociality.At the same time, and more incidentally, it develops epistemological considerations about the reflexive relationships between social sciences, linguistics, and natural sciences in the treatment of this “hybrid” objet.

This dissertation employs a case study research design and reviews literature from the field of animal assisted therapy (AAT) with an emphasis on equine facilitated psychotherapy (EFP), as a possible therapeutic alternative for treating inappropriate aggressive behaviour in a young boy. The research suggests that Horse Whispering can indeed be regarded as a viable therapeutic technique when intent on breaking the aggressive behaviour cycle. / Educational Studies / M.Ed.

In this study, the intersections between Equine Assisted Psychotherapeutic interventions and adolescence are explored. Equine Assisted therapeutic work has recently gained much popularity in the field of psychology, due to many reported benefits, which include the value of the use of the horse as a tool in psychotherapy. Adolescence is acknowledged to be a difficult transitional phase, punctuated with many challenges, such as identity development. As this study is conducted by a trainee psychotherapist and researcher, the work also contains a reflexive exploration of these fields, with personal reflections regarding the researcher‟s own experience in the fields. This study is framed as a transtheoretical bricolage, which includes elements of reflexivity, heuristics, transpersonal, and phenomenological research approaches. Data was gathered from individual interviews with co-researchers, focus group interviews, personal reflections, and inclusion of non-verbal information from the horses who formed part of this study. Data analysis was done by means of a Thematic Data Analysis. The research findings reflect themes on different levels, which are: content themes, process themes, meta-reflections on the research process, and a meta-analysis of the research and individual developmental process which took place in the production of this work / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This dissertation employs a case study research design and reviews literature from the field of animal assisted therapy (AAT) with an emphasis on equine facilitated psychotherapy (EFP), as a possible therapeutic alternative for treating inappropriate aggressive behaviour in a young boy. The research suggests that Horse Whispering can indeed be regarded as a viable therapeutic technique when intent on breaking the aggressive behaviour cycle. / Educational Studies / M.Ed.

In this study, the intersections between Equine Assisted Psychotherapeutic interventions and adolescence are explored. Equine Assisted therapeutic work has recently gained much popularity in the field of psychology, due to many reported benefits, which include the value of the use of the horse as a tool in psychotherapy. Adolescence is acknowledged to be a difficult transitional phase, punctuated with many challenges, such as identity development. As this study is conducted by a trainee psychotherapist and researcher, the work also contains a reflexive exploration of these fields, with personal reflections regarding the researcher‟s own experience in the fields. This study is framed as a transtheoretical bricolage, which includes elements of reflexivity, heuristics, transpersonal, and phenomenological research approaches. Data was gathered from individual interviews with co-researchers, focus group interviews, personal reflections, and inclusion of non-verbal information from the horses who formed part of this study. Data analysis was done by means of a Thematic Data Analysis. The research findings reflect themes on different levels, which are: content themes, process themes, meta-reflections on the research process, and a meta-analysis of the research and individual developmental process which took place in the production of this work / Psychology / M. A. (Clinical Psychology)