TABLE OF CONTENTS

SUMMARY…………………………………………………………………………………… i

INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………… 1

METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………………………………… 1

DISCUSSION…………………………………………………………………………………… 2Anthropomorphism……………………………………………………………………… 2Personality Disorders………………………………………………………………….. 2-4Childhood Trauma………………………………………………………………………..4

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………4-5

REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………………….6-7

SUMMARY

Anthropomorphism is the concept of giving human like attributes to inhuman figures. It’s a common occurance done to everyday inanimate objects. There is a higher tendency to anthropomorphize with something that a person has a strong emotional attachment to. This report focuses on the ttachment to stuffed animals and the subsequent tendency to anthropomorphize them. Various studies have been done on attachment to stuffed animals in adults potential causes. There are multiple theories as to what causes a person to anthropomorphize. This report focuses on studies that center around why people anthropomorphize as well as on studies that look into different personality disorders that could potentially lead to attachment to stuffed animals. There is a strong correlation between long term attachment to stuffed animals and various personality disorders, specifically dissociation disorder and borderline personality disorder. There are also findings on strong attachment stemming from childhood trauma or disturbances. Attachment to stuffed animals can be a result of, or could also lead to, anxiety and trouble with person relationships. The use of stuffed animals in children is common, but for a strong need or attachment to continue into adulthood it is frequently a sign of underlying issues, such as anxiety or psychiatric problems. There are reports done that infer that stuffed animals can help disturbed children or children in traumatic situations, as well as reports that adults or adolescents in psychiatric care take comfort from stuffed animals. It can therefore be inferred that further research into attachment and stuffed animals could lead to potentially helpful treatment methods for adults with disorders or who are experiencing trauma.

INTRODUCTION

Anthropomorphism is described as “the tendency to imbue the real or imagined behavior of non human agents with humanlike characteristics, motivations, intentions or emotions” (Epley, Waytz, and Cacioppo, 2007, p.864 ). The average person will do this with pets, cars, toys, plants or spiritual deities. Chandler and Schwarz (2010, p. 139) noted that “once a product is anthropomorphized, it becomes possible for [an individual] to enter into a relationship with it, changing the emotional quality of [their] experience with their possessions.” It can therefore be hypothesized that anthropomorphizing and emotional attachment are related and the former can lead to the latter.

Caporael and Heyes (1997, p.60) say that “attributing human characteristics-specifically mental states- to nonhuman entities is pervasive among humans.” This report will focus on the phenomenon of anthropomorphizing and stuffed animals. It will examine the emotional attachment both children and adults have to their teddies, also referred to as transitional objects (TO’s). The Transitional Object Questionnaire (cited in Schonfeldt-Lecuona et al. 2015) categorizes attachment to TO’s as ranging from not important at all to “quite important” or “intense” (Hooley, DPhil and Wilson-Murphy, 2012). This report will examine various personality disorders and/or childhood occurrences that can lead to the emotional attachment to and the anthropomorphizing of stuffed animals.

This report will begin with an explanation of anthropomorphizing and some of the psychology and theories, or lack thereof, behind it. It will then examine the relation between anthropomorphizing in various personality disorders such as anxiety disorder and Dissociation Disorder (DID). There is a large correlation between attachment to TO’s and Borderline Personality Disorder (BDP), so a large part of the discussion will revolve around that. Finally, the discussion will examine the relation between anthropomorphism and childhood trauma, or disturbance. It will conclude with the correlation between attachment and personality disorders, and how further research into anthropomorphism could benefit treatment for certain disorders.

METHODOLOGY

English-language peer-reviewed research used for this report was found searching the EBSCO database using the following search terms: “attachment and stuffed animals,” “anthropomorphism and trauma,” “Psychological attachment to stuffed animals,” “teddy bears and attachment,” and “anthropomorphism and attachment.” Further peer-reviewed English-language research was found searching the Google Scholar database using the following search terms: “anthropomorphism and teddy bears,” “anthropomorphism, stuffed animals and trauma,” “anthropomorphism and emotional attachment.” Sources used in Childhood Neglect, Attachment to Companion Animals and Stuffed Animals as Attachment Objects in Women in men as well as in Naturalizing Anthropomorphism: Behavioral Prompts to our Humanizing of Animals, were also searched in google scholar. Publication dates of the material found ranged from 1972 to 2015.

English-language credible media sources were found searching the EBSCO database using the search terms: “psychological attachment to stuffed animals.” Further credible media sources were found using the Google search database and using the search terms: “anthropomorphism and stuffed animals.” Publication dates of the material found ranged from 2010 to 2015.

DISCUSSION

For purposes of this report, the discussion will vary between anthropomorphism, attachment to transitional objects (TO’s), and stuffed animal ownership.

Anthropomorphism

The phrase anthropomorphism is “derived from the Greek word Anthropos (meaning human) and morphe (meaning shape or form)” (Epley et al. 2007, p.865) and it is essentially “giving human characteristics to animals. inanimate objects or natural phenomena” (Nauert, Psych Central News, 2010). In this process “inanimate objects are made familiar through physical personification” (Horowitz and Bekoff, 2007). Epley et. all note that “very little of the existing research on anthropomorphism provides a psychological account of… why people are likely to anthropomorphize nonhuman agents.” C. Lloyd Morgan however, describes anthropomorphism as “‘ejective psychology’- the conscious and superficial bits of an observer's personal psychology states flung onto other humans or animals” (cited by Caporael and Heyes 19970), essentially stating that the emotions and personal attributes that people give to inanimate objects source from their own subconscious thoughts and emotions. Also, Donald Hebb theorized that anthropomorphizing “has clear manifestations, clear triggers and evaluative usefulness” (cited in Horowits and Bekoff, p. 24). While anthropomorphizing does commonly occur towards objects resembling other humans, Mitchell and Hamm state that “ultimately, behavioral prompts for anthropomorphism may well trump any physical similarities” (cited in Horowitz and Bekoff p.30). It is essentially done with anything a person feels an emotional attachment to. So therefore, while it’s commonly done with pets or teddies, it’s also done with cars or plants. Nauret (2010) stated that ”various motivations may also influence anthropomorphism. For example, lacking social connections with other people might motivate lonely individuals to seek out connections from non human items.” A study done by Gjersoe, Hall and Hood (2015) showed that “children attribute mental states specifically to toys to which they have become emotionally attached” (p. 29). The following takes a look at attachment and anthropomorphizing in Transitional Objects, and it’s relationship to anxiety and other Personality Disorders.

Personality Disorders

Barlow, Cromer, Caron and Freyd (2012) reported that “while many people own stuffed animals, having relational interactions with them is less common” (p.9). Hooley et al. (2012) observed that “people with intense attachments to transitional objects [are] more anxious in relationships.” Brown and Kacher “speculated that early attachment problems could lead people to become highly attached to companion animals as a substitute for human relationships” (cited in Barlow et al. 2012, p. 4). It should be noted that for the purpose of this report that “living with a companion animal is not always an option… in these cases stuffed animals such as teddy bears may contain similar benefits to companion animals’ (Barlow et. al 2012, p. 5). It was theorized that “attachment objects help infants reduce anxiety and feel secure”(cited in Barlow et al., 2012), and “in some instances, the attachment to such a transitional object continues into adulthood, possibly serving to reduce affective distress and playing a role in emotion regulation” (Schonfeldt-Lecuona et al., 2015, p. 215). Schonfeldt-Lecuona et al. (2015) also theorizes that “it is possible that a deficit in object consistency or in cognitive abilities is the reason for TO use in adulthood”

(p. 227). A study done by Jaffe and Franch found that while “feelings towards stuffed animals have not been much studied in adults… adolescents who were in a psychiatric hospital used stuffed animals to fulfill various important meanings and roles” (Cited in Barlow, Hutchinson, Newton, Grover and Ward 2015, p. 113) Hooley et al. (2012) also did studies that suggest that “heavy emotional reliance on transitional objects in adulthood may serve as an indicator of underlying pathology” (p. 188). Brody, Costa and Hess (2012) noted that “previous research with clinical populations has associated adult toy ownership with personality disorder” (p.177) and one of the personality disorders with high attachment rates Dissociative Disorder (DID). “High-dissociating students and DID participants were more attached to stuffed animals than were low-dissociating students.. research has found that… participants who were highly dissociative were more likely… to view stuffed animals as friends” (Barlow et al.,2012, p. 9). Another disorder that had a high relation to anthropomorphism is schizophrenia, “it seem[s] that schizophrenic children often related to nonhuman objects… because of the need to compensate for frustrations suffered in human relations”(Wundheiler, 1972, p. 187). The figure below shows a study taken in relation to participants diagnosed with personality disorders and their attachment to transitional objects. PD= Personality Disorder, BDP= Boderline Personality Disorder n = number of people questioned.So, 9 people had other personality disorders and 55.6% of those reported were attached to TO’s.

Figure 1: Percentage of Personality Disorders and ownership of TO’s

Source: Schonfeldt-Lecuona et al. (2012, p. 222)

The following figure shows individual disorders and how many participants with each disorder who had either intense attachment or no attachment at all to TO’s.

Figure 2: Average number of patients with various PDs and TO attachment

Source: Hooley et al. (2012, p. 187)

As shown in figure 2, while attachment and anthropomorphism do have strong ties to many disorders, studies show that the strongest relations are to BDP. Schonfeldt-Lecuona et al. (2015) observed that “it has been consistently reported that TO use is most pronounced in patients with borderline personality disorder, who typically show increases emotional distress” (p. 215-216). Brody, Miguel and Hess (2012) also noted that “previous research with clinical populations has associated adult toy ownership especially with borderline personality disorder” (p. 177) This may however be partly because “people with borderline traits often have a large number of comorbid diagnoses” (cited in Hooley et al., 2012, p.188). Attachment doesn’t always stem purely from having a disorder however, sometimes trauma or childhood disturbances can trigger the need for a TO and for anthropomorphism to appear in adulthood. That theory will be explored in the following conversation.

Childhood Trauma

The figure below shows participants with varying types of trauma experience and how many of them had either intense, mild or no attachment to TO’s at all, as well as whether they had past attachment.

Figure 3: Level of attachment to TOs in participants who reported childhood trauma

Source: Hooley et. al. (2012, p. 185)

Figure 3 shows “that the intense group scored significantly higher than the mild, past and no attachment groups on all measures of childhood trauma” (Hooley et al., 2012, p. 186). Barlow et al. (2012) noted that “stuffed animals may provide comfort and stability for survivors of interpersonal trauma (p.5). A study done by Lehmar, Arnold and Reeves (1995) on attachment showed that a “sizable percentage of children with TO attachment remembered getting the object when they were sad, lonely, tired or afraid” (p.449). This shows a relation towards attachment starting in the middle of emotional trauma. Hooley et al. (2012) state that “overall our findings suggest that people who, in adulthood, have intense emotional attachments to stuffed animals and other transitional objects are likely to report that they have experienced chaotic, abusive, and traumatic childhoods” (p. 189). Police officers have also been known to give children stuffed animals because “for children in traumatic situations, a stuffed animal… gives a sense of normalcy… it may be the one thing they have to hang onto that can bring some sense in order back into their lives”(Lima News, Kelly, 2015). Sadeh, Hen-Gal and Titkotzky did a study on children in war camps that suggested that “traumatized children may benefit from toy stuffed animals” (cited in Barlow et al.,2012, p. 1p). A study done by Barlow et al. (2012) supported a “theoretical viewpoint of stuffed animal attachment as a coping mechanism to deal with trauma” (p.9). It has also been noted that “These early experiences may also create an emotional void that transitional objects are called upon to fill” (Hooley et al., 2012 p.188). One study done by Hooley et al. (2012) showed that “people who used TO’s to give themselves emotional comfort would report more childhood experiences of trauma” and also found that “adults with more intense attachments to TO’s would rate their early caregivers as less supportive and caring” (p.186). It isn’t necessarily specific incidents or tragic memories that lead to attachment, emotional neglect or an abnormal amount of absence from parental figures or caregivers early on can also lead to TO attachment or to disorders that lead to TO attachment in adulthood.

Conclusion

This Report explored the connection between anthropomorphism and attachment, and how it applies to transitional objects, or stuffed animals. There is little to be said about the exact connection between the two, but it can be inferred that adults with intense attachment are likely to see their TO’s as friends, or in other words, to anthropomorphize them. Epley et al. (2007) state that “anthropomorphism can satisfy a need for social connection, especially in the face of the anxiety of uncertainty” (p.866). Anxiety is just one of the disorders that can lead to intense attachment to a TO in both children and adults. This report showcased multiple studies that proved that attachment can frequently be related to personality disorders, such as dissociation disorder or borderline personality disorder. It has also been proven that a need for TO’s can stem from childhood trauma, or neglect. Studies have shown that children going through traumatic instances can benefit from the comfort of a stuffed animal. It can therefore be inferred that adults who experienced trauma, or who are experiencing turmoil can find comfort and friendship from a stuffed animal. As for how often adult trauma can spark an attachment, or an increase of anthropomorphism, few studies have been done. It was stated earlier that little research has been done concerning why humans anthropomorphize, but this report gives evidence that considering the relation between attachment and personality disorders, further research into anthropomorphism could potentially assist with the diagnosis and treatment of various disorders.

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