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Individual striving as an ingredient of well-being: human-centered works shed light on animal wellbeing By Elizabeth Oriel, Toni Frohoff, Susan Wilson Striving – A Useful Rubric of Well-Being • Conatus—Latin term for effort, vital force in living things • Striving occurs within many/most activities, relates to inner experience (thoughts and feelings) • Cessation of striving in humans is often sign of decreased well-being • Wellbeing defined Our Main Points • Striving and wellbeing connected in the works of philosophers, psychologists, economists • Human-centered work on capacities and striving relates to animals • Assess ecological/captive conditions for striving potential and behavioral cues • Research on wellbeing/evaluating striving Aristotle Connects Striving and Capacities to Wellbeing Aristotle, courtesy of Statistics Dept. University of St Andrews, Scotland Aristotle: One of the First to Connect Capacities and Well-being • Teleological—beings strive to fulfill their own nature • Each individual strives to fulfill and utilize their capacities and potentiality=wellbeing • Aristotle denied that animals have reason or belief • Philosopher Richard Sorabji explains the legacy today from this Aristotelian tradition Aristotle, De Anima, translator Hugh Lawson-Tancred, 1986, London: Penguin Books. Sorabji, R. 1993. Animal Minds and Human Morals, Ithaca, Cornell University Press. Baruch Spinoza—2000 years later (1677 A.D.) • Striving is essential to all life forms • Humans are not separate from nature • Living things strive to change, to know more, to live with greater force Baruch Spinoza, picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Spinoza, B. in Edwin Curley, translator, The Collected Writings of Spinoza, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985. Volume 1. Human Psychological Studies • Personal striving for goals is significant factor in wellbeing (Emmons 1986, Deci and Ryan 2008) • Allport (1937) –teleonomic trends • Autonomy is factor in striving and wellbeing (Devine et al. 2008) Amartya Sen/ Martha Nussbaum • Capabilities and opportunities central to wellbeing for humans • They assess justice and equality based on capabilities and opportunities that society provides • Can be applied to non-human animals— incorporate into management decisions and assessing ecological conditions/captivity Nussbaum, M. C. 2000. Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sen, A. 1992. Inequality Reexamined. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Martha Nussbaum’s Ten Capabilities 1) Life expectancy 2) Bodily Health 3) Bodily Integrity 4) Senses, Imagination, Thought 5) Emotions 6) Practical reason 7) Affiliation 8) Other Species 9) Play 10) Control over one’s environment Nussbaum, M. C. 2000. Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Where Does Striving Occur? • Short and long-term goals • Spontaneous activities, such as play • Movement and exploration, foraging, social interaction and bonds, reproduction and rearing young, play • Through the presence of opportunities Harbour seal pups playing, Photo courtesy of Susan Wilson How To Assess Striving? Photo courtesy of Toni Frohoff, PhD Assessing Wellbeing • First: focus on species. Seek knowledge of species in question-- their sensory, emotional, social, and mental capacities • Second: Observe behaviors, e.g. play, mother relation with young, etc. • Third: focus on environment and ask “can this species strive to fulfill their capacities in a given environment?” • Answers will help assess the “striving potential” of that environment Toni Frohoff’s research Researching impacts to dolphins from these swim-with-dolphin programs Photos courtesy of Toni Frohoff Free ranging dolphin in Irish waters interacts with researcher Assessing harbour seal wellbeing Pups being released from rehabilitation Photo courtesy of Susan Wilson Adult in captivity What May Reduce Striving in the Wild? • Decreased food resources. Malnourishment affects striving, e.g. studies find decreases in play and learning • Exposure to toxins and accumulation in body, e.g. Zala and Penn found changes in motivation and communication • Excessive predation or hunting • Changes or reduction in habitat area Relevance? • What is striving potential within long-term captive setting? • What are the differences between striving potential in free ranging captive setting versus zoo or aquaria? An example of empirical wellbeing study Summary •Can apply the humancentered works on striving to animals in long-term captivity, in rehabilitation, in sanctuaries, in wild •Valuable concept for any welfare assessment •Future work to create evaluative tool for assessment of striving potential Mating hippos in Africa, photo courtesy of Toni Frohoff Acknowledgments • We wish to thank Beth Kaplin • We also wish to thank Hilary Kornblith and Bob Remy-Powers for philosophical discussions • Elizabeth wishes to thank Gay Bradshaw for sharing her views and vision Sources • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Allport, F. H. 1937. Teleonomic description in the study of personality. Charatcer and Personality 5: 202-214. Aristotle, De anima, translator Hugh Lawson-Tancred, 1986, London: Penguin Books. Deci, E. L. and R. M. Ryan. 2008. Hedonia, eudaimonia, and well-being: an introduction. Journal of Happiness Studies 9: 1-11. Devine, J., L. Camfield, and I. Gough. 2008. Autonomy or dependence—or both? Perspectives from Bangladesh. Journal of Happiness Studies 9: 105-138. Diener, E. 1984. Subjective Well-Being, Psychological Bulletin 95: 542-575. Emmons, R. A. 1986. Personal strivings: an approach to personality and subjective well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 51: 1058-1068. Frohoff, T. 1993. Behavior of captive bottlenose dolphins and humans during controlled in-water interactions. MS thesis, Texas A &M University. Frohoff, T. and J. M. Packard. 1995. Human interactions with free-ranging and captive bottlenose dolphins. Anthrozoos 8: 44-53. Nussbaum, M. C. 2000. Women and human development: The capabilities approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sen. A. 1992. Inequality Reexamined. Oxford: Oxford university Press. Sorabji, R. 1993. Animal minds and human morals: the origins of the western debate. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Spinoza, B. in Edwin Curley, translator, The Collected Writings of Spinoza, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985. Volume 1. Verhoog, H. 2005. Animal Integrity. In: Marie, M. et al (Eds.) Animal Bioethics—Principles and Teaching Methods. Wageningen Academic Publishers. The Netherlands. Wilson, S. C., G. J. Pierce, C. M. Higgins, and M. J. Armstrong. 2002. Diet of harbour seals of Dundrum Bay, north-east Ireland. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK82: 1009-1018. Zala, S. M. and D. J. Penn. 2004. Abnormal behaviors induced by chemical pollution: a review of the evidence and new challenges. Animal Behavior 68: 649-664.