Validation and Use of the Animal Thematic Apperception Test (ATAT)

Abstract

AbstractThere are several contexts in which it is desirable to know how individuals perceive animals. However, most people describe these feelings with little precision. Several scales are useful for assessing attitudes toward individual animals of people who currently own or have owned pets. These usually include items about the role of the pet in the family, habitual means of interacting with the pet, and so on. The Animal Thematic Apperception Test (ATAT) was designed to assess attitudes toward animals independent of pet-ownership status by means of semantic differential scale ratings of line drawings. Preliminary evaluation of this test was completed on a sample of 68 white undergraduate students. The current study was designed to examine further the validity and reliability of the scale and the effect of the presence of animals in various scenes on individuals' perceptions of both the scenes and the people in them. Students (N=213) examined three separate scenes, two with and one without animals, and...