A survey on the attitudes of psychology students towards the use of animals in medical research

Feryl Badiani; Sagar Karia; Avinash De Sousa

Volume : VII, Issue : X, October - 2017

A survey on the attitudes of psychology students towards the use of animals in medical research

Feryl Badiani, Sagar Karia, Avinash De Sousa

Abstract :

Background: Psychology courses and psychology students have very poor understanding of animal research and the ethical issues involved in animal research. This is despite the fact that animal research plays a vital role in behavioural research. The study was aimed to survey the attitudes of psychology students towards animal research.

Methodology: A total of 202 undergraduate students in the final year of their undergraduate studies from various colleges of Mumbai were administered a semi–structured questionnaire on attitudes towards animal research. The questionnaire was validated by three senior researchers and was specially designed for the study. The data was collected and analysed using descriptive statistics and percentages.

Results: Only 50 students (24.75%) had ever visited animal house/ animal laboratory in the past and only 29 (14.36%) of them had actual experience of handling animals mainly in form of dissection studies on rats and cockroaches. Majority of them believed that animal research had no beå on problems concerning humans (43.6%, n = 88) and 27.7% (n=56) of them were of neutral opinion. Almost 84% (n=168) of them were concerned of pain and suffering animals would have undergoing research. 90% students voted in favour of stringent ethical guidelines for animal research.

Conclusion: Animal research awareness is poor in undergraduate psychology students and there is a need to incorporate the same in their curriculum to help foster better understanding of animal research and its long term implications.