Questionnaire: The empathy of parrots as emotional and psychological support animals

[reeb]

Questionnaire: The empathy of parrots in emotional and psychological support

I am currently writing an article for my blog that is about the ways in which parrots have the ability to show empathy towards human emotions and have the potential to be wonderful animals for emotional and psychological support.

To me it is the perfect opportunity to look more into something I feel with my parrots, and I am creating a short questionnaire for parrot owners to answer to see what their experiences are.

I would love for anyone in our community to take a few minutes out of their day to answer this questionnaire to help in my research:

Click here

Keep in mind that all answers will be entirely anonymous!

Thank you in advance to anyone who takes time to answer it! I will be sure to post the article on the forums once I have written it!

 

[SilverSage]

I would suggest that you clarify whether you are talking about Psychological Service Animals (which a parrot cannot legally be), Emotional Support Animals (personal pets that provide support to their handler) or Therapy Animals (which provide therapy to people OTHER THAN their handlers such as hospital patients or nursing home residents), since all of these things are very different with difference requirements and rights, and your language here is confusing.


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[reeb]

What I am referring to is their ability to give emotional and psychological support to humans, that is all. I'm not designating some kind of role, or thinking of it in an official sense (as trained therapy animals or emotional support animals, etc), as those aren't applicable to my question, as I outlined in the introduction page that the link sends you to:

"Thank you for your interest in this survey. The aim of this research is to get a better understanding of (a) the depth of parrots’ emotions, (b) their ability to understand empathy and (c) their roles as psychological and emotional support to their owner/s. Hence, this questionnaire will cover a few brief questions about your experiences as a parrot owner. It should only take a few minutes to complete. All answers will be completely anonymous."

I became aware of the fact that Berry responds to my severe anxiety and supports me, and I am, as a Psychology student, immensely interested in her ability to understand and interpret human emotions. I'm sorry if my wording is wrong, I originally did not want to call them "therapy animals" for this very reason, to me my interactions with my parrots are therapeutic, thats why I used that word. I have edited it out now.

This is literally just for an article (not a huge research paper or anything), I'm sorry!

 

[reeb]

Thank you everyone so so much for your responses so far!
:jumping40

 

[Scott]

I took the survey! Short, easy to navigate, hope it helps! Depending on the number and variety of responses, it may be possible to piggyback on the data and design future and more targeted works.

 

[DiscoDuck]

What I am referring to is their ability to give emotional and psychological support to humans, that is all. I'm not designating some kind of role

ahhh... yes you are. Psychologically it is not that simple. One size never fits all. As with any bond between human and pet. there must be a collaboration of emotions and how each of those respond to various stimuli.

FWIW. On my bucket list. I am very close to embarking on a quest to involve my parrot and myself with the local Veterans Companion Pet Program. I recently met a 21 year female Army Vet who said she will be happy to help with initiating this endeavor. Have I done that yet? no....

I recognize that Rudy is not yet an adult. Its important - that while I know Rudy really well. I don't know what he may or may not be like 2 years from now. Because of the longevity of a parrot, this is a difficult subject. One thing that always changes, is change itself..

 

[DiscoDuck]

I took the survey! Short, easy to navigate, hope it helps! Depending on the number and variety of responses, it may be possible to piggyback on the date and design future and more targeted works.

DIng ding ding...