The Response of College Freshmen to the Ethics of Animal Rights: An Example of Applied Learning Theory

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 202-209
Author(s):  
M. Jaynes

A telling arena for observing ethical human behavior is the human treatment of nonhuman animals. How one treats or mistreats animals is a decision mostly grounded in his or her ethical beliefs. This article examines animal ethics and discusses the value of intrinsic motivation through the lens of teaching a freshman animal ethics. In addition, this opinion piece argues the merit of the pass/fail paradigm in lieu of the traditional grading paradigm by using the triad of Kohn’s (1999) intrinsic motivation, Thorndike’s (1913) law of readiness, and Bandura’s (1997) social cognitive notion of self-regulation while exploring the human ethical notions related to learning about animal rights.

PMLA ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 130 (5) ◽  
pp. 1467-1475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Arnould-Bloomfield

What happens when i watch a creature suffer or when i share in my dog's joy? what is the power of these emotions, what do they teach me about living with animals and engaging ethically with their differences? While these questions may still seem sentimental to some, they have become increasingly relevant to those who study animals. Emotions have made a remarkable comeback in recent animal literature and philosophy. Rehabilitated by a new wave of theorists, they have found their way into some of the most provocative contemporary reflections on animal ethics. Josephine Donovan, Jacques Derrida, Ralph Acampora, Donna Haraway, and others have all granted compassion theoretical pride of place. They share a critique of the rationalist bias of the justice-and-rights tradition and suggest that compassionate attention to animals is the “ground upon which theory about human treatment of animals should be constructed” (Donovan, “Attention” 174). For many such contemporary thinkers, then, compassion—a deeply affective way of sharing another's emotion—is the fundamental means of forging the ethical bond we have with nonhuman animals. Replacing the “calculable process” of current animal-rights theories with the emotional encounter of the other's living—and dying—reality, compassion offers a new understanding of responsibility and relationships (Wolfe, “Exposures” 19).


Author(s):  
Steve Cooke

AbstractAnimal agriculture predominantly involves farming social animals. At the same time, the nature of agriculture requires severely disrupting, eliminating, and controlling the relationships that matter to those animals, resulting in harm and unhappiness for them. These disruptions harm animals, both physically and psychologically. Stressed animals are also bad for farmers because stressed animals are less safe to handle, produce less, get sick more, and produce poorer quality meat. As a result, considerable efforts have gone into developing stress-reduction methods. Many of these attempt to replicate behaviours or physiological responses that develop or constitute bonding between animals. In other words, humans try to mitigate or ameliorate the damage done by preventing and undermining intraspecies relationships. In doing so, the wrong of relational harms is compounded by an instrumentalisation of trust and care. The techniques used are emblematic of the welfarist approach to animal ethics. Using the example of gentle touching in the farming of cows for beef and dairy, the paper highlights two types of wrong. First, a wrong done in the form of relational harms, and second, a wrong done by instrumentalising relationships of care and trust. Relational harms are done to nonhuman animals, whilst instrumentalisation of care and trust indicates an insensitivity to morally salient features of the situation and a potential character flaw in the agents that carry it out.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 670-687
Author(s):  
Anna L. Peterson

Abstract Canine rescue is a growing movement that affects the lives of tens of thousands of nonhuman animals and people every year. Rescue is noteworthy not only for its numbers, but also because it challenges common understandings of animal advocacy. Popular accounts often portray work on behalf of animals as sentimental, individualistic, and apolitical. In fact, work on behalf of animals has always been political, in multiple ways. It is characterized both by internal political tensions, especially between animal rights and welfare positions, and by complex relations to the broader public sphere. I analyze canine rescue, with a focus on pit bull rescue, to show that an important segment of canine rescue movements adopts an explicitly political approach which blurs the divide between rights and welfare, addresses the social context of the human-animal bond, and links animal advocacy to social justice.


2008 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 439-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Selart ◽  
Thomas Nordström ◽  
Bård Kuvaas ◽  
Kazuhisa Takemura

2020 ◽  
pp. 174569162095378
Author(s):  
Satoshi Kanazawa

I aver that standard economics as a model of human behavior is as incorrect in 2017 (after Thaler) as geocentrism was as a model of celestial behavior in 1617 (after Galileo). Behavioral economic studies that have exposed the paradoxes and anomalies in standard economics are akin to epicycles on geocentrism. Just as no amount of epicycles could salvage geocentrism as a model of celestial behavior because it was fundamentally incorrect, no amount of behavioral economic adjustments could salvage standard economics as a model of human behavior because it is fundamentally incorrect. Many of the cognitive biases exhibited by humans are shared by other species, so not only are human actors Humans (as opposed to Econs), but nonhuman animals as phylogenetically distant from humans as ants and locusts are also Humans. Evolutionary biology as a model of human behavior can explain many of the hitherto unexplained cognitive biases and provide a unifying model of human behavior currently lacking in behavioral economics.


PhaenEx ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey Lee Wrenn

Alternative food systems (namely the humane product movement) have arisen to address societal concerns with the treatment of Nonhuman Animals in food production. This paper presents an abolitionist Nonhuman Animal rights approach (Francione, 1996) and critiques these alternative systems as problematic in regards to goals of considering the rights or welfare of Nonhuman Animals. It is proposed that the trend in social movement professionalization within the structure of a non-profit industrial complex will ultimately favor compromises like “humane” products over more radical abolitionist solutions to the detriment of Nonhuman Animals. This paper also discusses potential compromises for alternative food systems that acknowledge equal consideration for Nonhuman Animals, focusing on grassroots veganism as a necessary component for consistency and effectiveness.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (18) ◽  

The aim of this study is to develop a scale compatible with current animal ethics studies to measure the phenomenon of speciesism, that is marginalization of animals and prejudice and discrimination against animals. In order to develop the Ambivalent Speciesism Scale, an item pool was created by examining the animal ethics literature and social psychology studies on human-animal relations, and then the items were edited by taking the opinions of people studying animal rights and experts in measurement and evaluation in psychology. The scale is designed in 7-point Likert type. The trial form was applied to the participants together with the Speciesism Scale, the Social Dominance Orientation Scale and the Basic Empathy Scale. Participants were selected from individuals representing different lifestyles in the context of animal use, using the snowball sampling technique. The study was conducted with 288 participants; 64 men, 217 women and, 7 of whom are not of both genders. While there were 24 items in the trial form of the scale, nine of these items were eliminated as a result of the factor analysis. The final form of the scale with 15 items has a high reliability (.90). The items of the scale are divided into three dimensions: belief in human superiority, protective speciesism, and speciesism in language. It was determined that the scores obtained from the scale were in positive correlation with the scores obtained from the other scale measuring speciesism and the social dominance orientation scale, as expected. The scores obtained from the scale are distributed as expected among the groups that include lifestyles related to animal use. These data were evaluated as findings showing the validity of the scale. Keywords Speciesism, ambivalent speciesism scale, animal rights, discrimination, animal ethics


Author(s):  
Umesh Bamel ◽  
Pawan Budhwar ◽  
Peter Stokes ◽  
Happy Paul

Purpose While a range of studies have been undertaken on role efficacy (RE) and managerial effectiveness (ME), understanding of the link between RE and ME in the extant literature remains underdeveloped and, in particular, there is a need to develop appreciation of the phenomenon in varying (national and cultural) contexts. The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of ME by considering the relationship between RE and ME in the Indian context. In tandem with this focus, the study considers the parallel underlying dynamic and influence of social cognitive frameworks and adaptive self-regulation mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach The study employs a quantitative methodology and follows a correlational design. A survey questionnaire was employed sequentially (the independent variable was measured at time 1 and the dependent variable was measure at time 2) in order to collect data from 294 Indian managers. Structural equation modeling was used to ascertain the validity of measures and multiple hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to test the study hypotheses. Findings The results of the study identify that RE dimensions, i.e. role making, role centering and role linkage were significantly and positively related to ME and these findings are particularly important in relation to the transforming cultures of Indian work and organizational environments. These findings advance the understanding of social cognitive theory and adaptive self-regulation processes in relation to RE and ME. Practical implications The empirical results of this study suggest that RE-related components may be used as means to boost employee effectiveness. Originality/value The study identifies a significant role for RE in relation to beneficial outcomes for ME. These findings contribute to the field of social cognitive mechanisms by establishing positive relationships in domain link efficacy, i.e. RE and ME.


Anthrozoös ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-177
Author(s):  
Courtney N. Plante ◽  
Stephen Reysen ◽  
Sharon E. Roberts ◽  
Kathleen Gerbasi

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