| The current investigation sought to determine whether the presence of a cat during semi-structured individual interviews on the topic of stress would result in statistically significant differences in affective state as measured by the PANAS-X affective rating scale. To answer this question, a repeated measure ANOVA statistic was performed and confirmed statistically significant differences between experimental and control group. In particular, positive affect increased and negative affect decreased when a cat was present during interviews compared to when a cat was not present. Additional analyses explored whether differences in interviewee perception of interviewer on the client-centered characteristics of warmth, empathy, genuineness, and overall level of comfort would be identified. Results demonstrated statistically significant differences in ratings of warmth, empathy, and genuineness; with these factors rated more positively when the cat was present versus when there was no cat present. Implications for the usefulness of animal-assisted therapeutic interventions are discussed. |
