Portia Mac and 'friend'
This is a post for all you dog lovers out there! Everyone who knows me knows how much I love “my doggies”! And guess what they are Scotties! According to Dr Lance Workman of Bath Spa University certain breeds of dogs are associated with particular kinds of people. So what does that say about me? Here is a description of the Scottish Terrier :
Scotties, like most terriers, are territorial. They are alert, quick moving and feisty — perhaps even more so than other terrier breeds.The breed is known to be independent and self-assured, playful, intelligent and has been nicknamed the ‘Diehard’ because of its rugged nature and endless determination.
Scotties, while being very loving, can also be particularly stubborn. Because the breed is inclined to be stubborn, it needs firm, but gentle handling from an early age or it will dominate the household
Does that sound like me? Well only those who truly know me can answer that one. Yes, you can match a dog to its owner. But the match is only skin deep.Dr Lance Workman asked group of 70 people who do not own a dog to match photos of 41 dog owners to three possible breeds – labrador, poodle or Staffordshire bull terrier. Owners were correctly matched to their breed of dog above the level of chance.
Dr Lance Workman said: “This suggests that certain breeds of dogs are associated with particular kinds of people. The non dog owners used stereotypes to match the dogs to their owners. These stereotypes persisted into judgements of the dog owners’ personalities: non dog owners considered the owners of each breed to share certain personality traits.
“But when we tested the dog owners’ personalities, we found no strong links between any particular personality trait and choice of dog breed, so any shared qualities are only skin deep.”
C’mon all you dog owners… what do you think about this?
Source: The British Psychological Society.
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Another fine entry in the social science’s ‘stating the bleedin’ obvious’ as if it was a major scientific breakthrough.. ‘certain breeds of dog are associated with certain kinds of people’ – never!.. that’s really astonishing!, I would never have thought of that.. but what does ‘shared qualities are only skin deep’ actually mean when applied to personality? So – did he give the dogs ‘personality tests’? and what do the characteristics we ascribe to dogs actually mean? – in the case of dogs might not ‘quick witted’ simply mean ‘slavishly obedient’ whilst ‘slow witted’ might mean ‘independent’ – when your dog bites you is it being ‘feisty’ or ‘vicious’? And so what? – we attribute ‘personality’ to all sorts of things – cars, garden plants, computers, kitchen utensils, tools (I was once asked by a market researcher if a drill looked masculine or feminine) – and people’s possession of these things in turn is supposed to provide some kind of insight into their personalities – to reflect back on them – so sports cars are supposedly indicative of penis envy, a mid-life crisis, whatever… I think I’d better stop there or I’ll give Dr Workman ideas for another academic masterpiece..but these are reflections of what we know or assume the person to be like, and a choice selection at that – and so we match selected characteristics or attributes of the person to presumed attributes of the thing, the car, the dog, whatever and think we have stumbled on an astounding ‘scientific’ discovery.. Finally, I think this says more about the character of psychology ‘experiments’ than anything meaningful about people (or dogs) .. if you ask people to participate in an experiment matching people’s faces to types of dog they are going to do it.. those who say ‘this is ridiculous’ are going to be excluded.. if there are only three different types of dog you have a one in three chance of being ‘right’.. and whilst the result is above that expected by chance so what? big deal – chances are against anyone winning the lottery and yet someone does nearly every week…(yes I know this is a different version of ‘chance’ but I still think the article is pop-psychology bollocks – I mean not exactly an outstanding contribution to man’s (and woman’s) relentless search for knowledge… does someone actually pay him to do this kind of stuff?)
Whine— whine…. grrrr ….grrrr…well said Mark. Now who was it who said that owners look like their dogs… help I’m in dire need of grrrrrooooming