Animal Emotions Essay

Science released an article entitled “Facial Expressions—Including Fear—May Not Be as Universal as We Thought”, written by Michael Pierce on October 17, 2016. In this article Pierce discusses how 50 years ago it was assumed that facial expressions were universal. However, it has been found that in the present day, this may not be the case. Expressions such as happiness, anger, sadness, fear, disgust, or hunger, were all assumed to be expressed the same way as well as interpreted the same way. A study was conducted in the Trobriand Islands, were Trobrianders were shown as series of photos with facial expressions. They were asked to describe the emotions they interpreted from the photos, the results were intriguing. Pierce (2016) describes how

This essay will look at the work of two very famous behaviourists. It will consider the differences and similarities as well as give descriptive detail of their actual experiments and see if any contribution was provided to mankind. It will focus on the theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning which occurs through interaction with the environment. As this was done by experimenting with animals, it is also necessary to consider the rules and restrictions that are needed to be kept in mind as research ethics applies to any experiments done on any living thing.

ountid=13939. It is important to know and keep in mind that all animals have feelings

First, we must determine what emotions are. Are they different for every being, or felt in the same way? Merriam-Webster defines emotion as “a conscious mental reaction (as anger or fear) subjectively experienced as strong feeling usually directed toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body.” As award-winning scientist Mark Bekoff states in his book The Emotional Lives of Animals, emotions are psychological phenomena that help in behavioral management and control (6). Another word that I will use from this point on to describe the event of cognitive feelings and emotions in animals is sentience. Again Merriam-Webster states that sentience is “the capacity to feel, perceive, or experience subjectively.”

This experiment in my opinion was useful to psychology. But I don’t agree with the methods that were applied. The researchers taught some behaviours to the monkeys that unless humans never show them how to do they will never do it by themselves, like

“In the course of raising these infants we observed that they all showed a strong attachment to the cheesecloth blankets which were used to cover the wire floors of their cages. Removal of these cloth blankets resulted in violent emotional behavior. These responses were not short-lived; indeed, the emotional disturbance lasted several days, as was indicated by the infant's refusal to work on the standard learning tests that were being conducted at the time” (Harlow, 1959). The infant monkey would become distressed when its comfort blanket, a cheesecloth, was removed so this started the experiment to see if the monkey would prefer a nourishing mother or a comforting mother.

As you look at the text of “A Change of Heart about Animals,” answer and then discuss the following questions:

After recovering, the chimpanzees would often touch the red mark, when they looked in the mirror. This supports the idea that higher-primates are capable of self-recognition. This experiment was tried out on other animals e.g. cats, dogs, and elephants with unsuccessful results. The fact that no other animals responded to this experiment means that it cannot be said for sure that all non-human animals are capable of self-recognition.

In George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, a major turning point in the novel was when Napoleon used his secret police force, his dogs, to exile Snowball. Snowball had previously been trying to improve the animal’s lives for the future by building a windmill. After Snowball was exiled, Napoleon became leader and everything immediately went amiss. Orwell stated that: "Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer- except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs" (p.86). In other words, no one was benefiting from the animal’s labours apart from the pigs and the dogs because the amount of authority the dogs and the pigs, especially Napoleon had, was corrupt. Frighteningly, if Snowball had been

emotions in a ‘man-made’ species is not far off in a non-organic life-form, but the question with

Verbal language is not the only means of communication. We can notice a person's emotions without him saying anything because of non-verbal language or body language he expressed. If we can examine body language in human, then we are also able to observe non-verbal language of animals. In accordance to Charles Darwin in his book, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, many of the non-verbal reactions of human in expressing emotions are identical with those of animals (Darwin, 1873). Thus, there is no reason that one, especially a scientist who has conducted a lot of experiments with animals, does not know whether an animal is suffering from mental pain or not. As psychological pains caused by animal testing offends the tested animals' welfare, alternative methods must be used to replace animal testing.

Why is it that we as a society condemn the actions of a man against a man but very rarely a man against an animal? I think this question must be understood if we are ever to change the rights animals have. As of yet I don't believe animals have any actual rights. Rather humans have rights that involve animals. If we are to truly allow animals to have rights the same or similar to humans then we must first define what it is that makes us feel as if they are entitled to rights.

The hypothesis that the apes might be able to communicate is being under consideration as there is no enough evidence of it. Researchers such as Koko or Michael apes ones are introduced as an evidence of apes acquisition of communication. But according to the lecturer to define the person capacity to communicate, we should consider some important factors. First of all, the existence of a language, the act of taking each way, emotion response to what is being said. This behaviour was not seen during the conducted experiments. This is being criticized by the researchers by saying that actually we do not know how apes behave as we do not spend much time with them. in this case another problem occurs. How does the emotion status of the researcher

George Orwell includes a strong message in his novel Animal Farm that is easily recognizable. Orwell’s Animal Farm focuses on two primary problems that were not only prominent in his WWII society, but also posed as reoccurring issues in all societies past and present. Orwell’s novel delivers a strong political message about class structure and oppression from the patriarchal society through an allegory of a farm that closely resembles the Soviet Union.

The controversy over the rights of animals continues today within the United States. There has always been a question about the emotions of animals. Can animals feel and exhibit emotions in the same way that humans do? Some people agree that animals do show signs of intelligence and emotions like love and pain. After-all there are bird breeds who mate with only one partner during their lifespan giving us the impression