Animal Models of Human Psychology: Critique of Science, Ethics and Policy »

Shapiro, Kenneth Joel, PhD (Psychologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)

When is animal research necessity and when is it cruelty? Animal Models of Human Psychology is a breakthrough text that presents the first empirically based system of analysis to determine the answer to this much-debated question. Taking psychological eating disorders as a case study, Shapiro examines the costs and benefits associated with using nonhuman animals to study human phenomena. He uses social scientific analytic methods and original data to assess the effectiveness of current research, applying a combination of historical, conceptual, ethical, and political analyses to the use of animal models. This combination of elements makes Animal Models of Human Psychology a revolutionary text, which criticizes both the scientists who use animal models, as well as animal support groups which condemn such activities without a rigorous analysis of each situation.

Booknews

After surveying current research practices and model development strategies, the author examines animal models of eating disorders from both scientific and ethical points of view. He exposes logical inconsistencies in the study of animals as models for human behavior, and concludes that such research has little to contribute. The foreword is by noted chimpanzee-researcher Jane Goodall. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.