Qualitative Research in Psychology

In the last few years a growing body of research and writing has focused on human-animal and multispecies (two or more species in interaction) encounters and relationships across multiple settings and spaces. These developments have contributed to an ‘animal turn’ across numerous disciplines (Ritvo, 2007) - a growing scholarly interest in the historical, social, cultural and political significance of animals and human-animal entanglements, and related challenges to entrenched forms of human exceptionalism in academic disciplines and wider society – and the subsequent establishment of interdisciplinary fields such as the posthumanities, more-than-human approaches, multispecies methodologies, Anthrozoology, Human–Animal Studies, Animal Studies and Critical Animal Studies.

Though a latecomer, there is now a burgeoning Psychology of human-animal relations, addressing human attitudes, behaviours towards, and relationships with nonhuman animals (Amiot and Bastian, 2015; Adams, 2018). To date, the majority of this work is quantitative in orientation, and whatever the methodological orientation, there is as yet little attention paid to human encounters, interactions and relations with other species and forms of ‘nature’, such as plants, trees, rivers or landscapes. Yet in many disciplines – geography, anthropology, sociology – qualitative methods are being used to in innovative ways to address all aspects of the relationship between humans and other species and natural entities (Dowling et al. 2019). The key aim of this special issue of Qualitative Research in Psychology is to showcase how qualitive methods in psychology can make nuanced, insightful and critical contributions to our understanding of the relations between human and nonhuman animals, other species, and aspects of nature (Shapiro, 2017). We invite explorations of any human-animal or multispecies domains in or relevant to psychology informed by qualitative methods; as well as reflections on adapting existing qualitative methods to meet the challenges of studying human-animal relationships. Qualitative methods here includes visual creative and arts-based approaches.
Suggested topics include the psychological, interpersonal and social dynamics of the following (other suggestions welcome):
• Human-animal and other human and more-than-human relationships in the context of ongoing climate and ecological crisis.
• Human-animal relationships in research involving animals (including psychology experiments and research)
• Human-animal and multispecies relationships and human-nature relations as healing, for example in animal-assisted therapy and interventions, horticultural therapy, animal cafes, care farms etc.),
• Role of human-animal and multispecies relationships in development, for example childhood experiences of animals, other species, nature at home, in education
• Ideologies, worldviews, attitudes, experiences that challenge anthropocentrism (e.g. ecocentrism, animism)
• Psychological models of trans-species reciprocity and interdependence
• Working with animals (e.g. experimentalists, slaughterhouse workers, farmers, animal shelters) or with other species (forestry, conservation)
• Pets as family – kinship, care, loss
• Everyday and place-based explorations of people’s relations with other species (e.g. gardens, cities)
• Leisure, tourism and engagement with animals (e.g. zoos, safaris, birders)
• Animal advocacy – studies of human-animal relationships involved in animal advocacy in various forms – animal welfare and rights, animal and species conservation programmes, animal justice, veganism
• Psychological dimensions of how we justify meat eating, vegeterianism, or veganism; identities relating to, challenges.
• The role of language, discourse and social construction in establishing, maintaining or challenging human-animal relationships, attitudes towards animals, stereotypes, ideologies (specieism, anthropocentrism); including in Psychology (textbook coverage for example).

Work cited
Adams, M. (2018). Towards a critical psychology of human–animal relations. Social and personality psychology compass, 12(4), e12375.
Amiot, C. E., & Bastian, B. (2015). Toward a psychology of human–animal relations. Psychological bulletin, 141(1), 6.
Dowling, R., Lloyd, K., & Suchet-Pearson, S. (2017). Qualitative methods II: ‘More-than-human’methodologies and/in praxis. Progress in Human Geography, 41(6), 823-831.
Ritvo, H. (2007). On the animal turn. Daedalus, 136(4), 118-122.
Shapiro, K. (2017). Human-animal studies: Fertile ground for qualitative analysis. Society of Qualitative Investigations in Psychology.

Submissions
• Deadline for submission of full paper (6000-8000w): November 15th 2023
• Initial, informal discussion of potential proposals is encouraged, and should be sent to Dr. Matthew Adams at [email protected]
• Communication of accepted proposals: January 15th 2024
• Submitted papers will go through a blind, peer-review process following the Qualitative Research in Psychology procedures. Before submitting your work, please ensure that you read the Instructions for authors. Submissions that ignore these guidelines may be ignored.
• Expected publication: Late 2024

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