Psychosomatic Medicine 16:340-347 (1954)
© 1954 American Psychosomatic Society

Experimentally Induced Conflict in Cats

The principal objective was to gather evidence on whether lower animals are useful subjects for research on human psychopathology or whether phylogenetic differences prevent helpful correlations.

In the basic experiment, each of 17 cats was exposed to conflict between hunger and fear; each was first trained to self-feed in an experimental cage, then an irregular threatening stimulus was introduced at the moment of food-taking. The resulting behavior changes showed these phases: (1) an acute initial reaction lasting 1 or 2 days; (2) a phase of vacillation over several days; and (3) a final establishment, over several days, of a stable pattern of behavior, either that of resumed feeding or of withdrawal from the food. This sequence was interpreted as a healthy rather than a pathological reaction to conflict.

Secondary experiments are reported having to do with the effect of increasing the hunger, increasing the threatening stimulus, human petting and forcing, and alcohol and carbromal. These provided additional observations, mainly confirming the interpretation of a healthy reaction to conflict.

The relation of the findings of this study to the experiments and theory of Masserman are discussed. Differences in procedure and interpretation permit only an indirect comparison between this study and his work. However, our findings are in the opposite direction to his, that there was no evidence that the behavior of the cats in these experiments could be correlated with human psychopathology.