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Luchiari AC, Maximino C. Fish personality: meta-theoretical issues, personality dimensions, and applications to neuroscience and psychopathology. PERSONALITY NEUROSCIENCE 2023; 6:e9. [PMID: 38107778 PMCID: PMC10725779 DOI: 10.1017/pen.2023.3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2022] [Revised: 04/30/2023] [Accepted: 05/09/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
While the field of personality neuroscience has extensively focused on humans and, in a few cases, primates and rodents, a wide range of research on fish personality has emerged in the last decades. This research is focused mainly on the ecological and evolutionary causes of individual differences and also aimed less extensively at proximal mechanisms (e.g., neurochemistry or genetics). We argue that, if consistent and intentional work is made to solve some of the meta-theoretical issues of personality research both on fish and mammals, fish personality research can lead to important advances in personality neuroscience as a whole. The five dimensions of personality in fish (shyness-boldness, exploration-avoidance, activity, aggressiveness, and sociability) need to be translated into models that explicitly recognize the impacts of personality in psychopathology, synergizing research on fish as model organisms in experimental psychopathology, personality neuroscience, and ecological-ethological approaches to the evolutionary underpinnings of personality to produce a powerful framework to understand individual differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana Carolina Luchiari
- Department of Physiology & Behavior, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil
| | - Caio Maximino
- Laboratório de Neurociências e Comportamento, Instituto de Estudos em Saúde e Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Sul e Sudeste do Pará, Marabá, Brazil
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Bohn M, Eckert J, Hanus D, Lugauer B, Holtmann J, Haun DBM. Great ape cognition is structured by stable cognitive abilities and predicted by developmental conditions. Nat Ecol Evol 2023; 7:927-938. [PMID: 37106158 PMCID: PMC10250201 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02050-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2022] [Accepted: 03/28/2023] [Indexed: 04/29/2023]
Abstract
Great ape cognition is used as a reference point to specify the evolutionary origins of complex cognitive abilities, including in humans. This research often assumes that great ape cognition consists of cognitive abilities (traits) that account for stable differences between individuals, which change and develop in response to experience. Here, we test the validity of these assumptions by assessing repeatability of cognitive performance among captive great apes (Gorilla gorilla, Pongo abelii, Pan paniscus, Pan troglodytes) in five tasks covering a range of cognitive domains. We examine whether individual characteristics (age, group, test experience) or transient situational factors (life events, testing arrangements or sociality) influence cognitive performance. Our results show that task-level performance is generally stable over time; four of the five tasks were reliable measurement tools. Performance in the tasks was best explained by stable differences in cognitive abilities (traits) between individuals. Cognitive abilities were further correlated, suggesting shared cognitive processes. Finally, when predicting cognitive performance, we found stable individual characteristics to be more important than variables capturing transient experience. Taken together, this study shows that great ape cognition is structured by stable cognitive abilities that respond to different developmental conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manuel Bohn
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Johanna Eckert
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Daniel Hanus
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Benedikt Lugauer
- Wilhelm Wundt Institute of Psychology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Jana Holtmann
- Wilhelm Wundt Institute of Psychology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Daniel B M Haun
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Leipzig Research Centre for Early Child Development, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
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Uher J. What's wrong with rating scales? Psychology's replication and confidence crisis cannot be solved without transparency in data generation. SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY COMPASS 2023. [DOI: 10.1111/spc3.12740] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/12/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Jana Uher
- School of Human Sciences University of Greenwich London UK
- London School of Economics and Political Science London UK
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Weiss A, Feldblum JT, Altschul DM, Collins DA, Kamenya S, Mjungu D, Foerster S, Gilby IC, Wilson ML, Pusey AE. Personality traits, rank attainment, and siring success throughout the lives of male chimpanzees of Gombe National Park. PeerJ 2023; 11:e15083. [PMID: 37123001 PMCID: PMC10135409 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.15083] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2022] [Accepted: 02/25/2023] [Indexed: 05/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Personality traits in many taxa correlate with fitness. Several models have been developed to try to explain how variation in these traits is maintained. One model proposes that variation persists because it is linked to trade-offs between current and future adaptive benefits. Tests of this model's predictions, however, are scant in long-lived species. To test this model, we studied male chimpanzees living in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. We operationalized six personality traits using ratings on 19 items. We used 37 years of behavioral and genetic data to assemble (1) daily rank scores generated from submissive vocalizations and (2) records of male siring success. We tested whether the association between two personality traits, Dominance and Conscientiousness, and either rank or reproductive success, varied over the life course. Higher Dominance and lower Conscientiousness were associated with higher rank, but the size and direction of these relationships did not vary over the life course. In addition, independent of rank at the time of siring, higher Dominance and lower Conscientiousness were related to higher siring success. Again, the size and direction of these relationships did not vary over the life course. The trade-off model, therefore, may not hold in long-lived and/or slowly reproducing species. These findings also demonstrate that ratings are a valid way to measure animal personality; they are related to rank and reproductive success. These traits could therefore be used to test alternative models, including one that posits that personality variation is maintained by environmental heterogeneity, in studies of multiple chimpanzee communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Weiss
- National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, Durham, NC, United States of America
- School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
- Scottish Primate Research Group, United Kingdom
| | - Joseph T. Feldblum
- Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America
- Society of Fellows, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States of America
| | - Drew M. Altschul
- School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Scottish Primate Research Group, United Kingdom
- Mental Health Data Science, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | | | - Shadrack Kamenya
- Gombe Stream Research Centre, Jane Goodall Institute, Kigoma, Tanzania
| | - Deus Mjungu
- Gombe Stream Research Centre, Jane Goodall Institute, Kigoma, Tanzania
| | - Steffen Foerster
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States of America
| | - Ian C. Gilby
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States of America
- Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States of America
| | - Michael L. Wilson
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, United States of America
- Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, United States of America
| | - Anne E. Pusey
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States of America
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Uher J. Taxonomic models of individual differences: a guide to transdisciplinary approaches. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2019; 373:rstb.2017.0171. [PMID: 29483354 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/08/2017] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Models and constructs of individual differences are numerous and diverse. But detecting commonalities, differences and interrelations is hindered by the common abstract terms (e.g. 'personality', 'temperament', 'traits') that do not reveal the particular phenomena denoted. This article applies a transdisciplinary paradigm for research on individuals that builds on complexity theory and epistemological complementarity. Its philosophical, metatheoretical and methodological frameworks provide concepts to differentiate various kinds of phenomena (e.g. physiology, behaviour, psyche, language). They are used to scrutinize the field's basic concepts and to elaborate methodological foundations for taxonomizing individual variations in humans and other species. This guide to developing comprehensive and representative models explores the decisions taxonomists must make about which individual variations to include, which to retain and how to model them. Selection and reduction approaches from various disciplines are classified by their underlying rationales, pinpointing possibilities and limitations. Analyses highlight that individuals' complexity cannot be captured by one universal model. Instead, multiple models phenotypically taxonomizing different kinds of variability in different kinds of phenomena are needed to explore their causal and functional interrelations and ontogenetic development that are then modelled in integrative and explanatory taxonomies. This research agenda requires the expertise of many disciplines and is inherently transdisciplinary.This article is part of the theme issue 'Diverse perspectives on diversity: multi-disciplinary approaches to taxonomies of individual differences'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jana Uher
- University of Greenwich, Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, London SE10 9LS, UK .,London School of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2A 2AE London, UK
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Seltmann MW, Helle S, Adams MJ, Mar KU, Lahdenperä M. Evaluating the personality structure of semi-captive Asian elephants living in their natural habitat. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2018; 5:172026. [PMID: 29515900 PMCID: PMC5830789 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.172026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2017] [Accepted: 01/10/2018] [Indexed: 03/14/2024]
Abstract
Data on personality for long-lived, highly social wild mammals with high cognitive abilities are rare. We investigated the personality structure of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) by using a large sample of semi-captive timber elephants in Myanmar. Data were collected during 2014-2017 using questionnaires, for which elephant riders (mahouts) rated 28 behavioural adjectives of elephants. Repeated questionnaires were obtained for each elephant from several raters whenever possible, resulting in 690 ratings of 150 female and 107 male elephants. We started by performing a confirmatory factor analysis to compare the fit of our data to a previously published captive elephant personality structure. Owing to a poor fit of this model to our data, we proceeded by performing explanatory factor analysis to determine the personality structure in our study population. This model suggested that personality in these elephants was manifested as three factors that we labelled as Attentiveness, Sociability and Aggressiveness. This structure did not differ between the sexes. These results provide the basis for future research on the link between personality and reproductive success in this endangered species and more generally, help to resolve the selective pressures on personalities in long-lived, highly social species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin W. Seltmann
- Section of Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland
| | - Samuli Helle
- Section of Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland
| | - Mark J. Adams
- Division of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh EH10 5HF, UK
| | - Khyne U Mar
- Section of Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland
| | - Mirkka Lahdenperä
- Section of Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland
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Uher J. Developing "Personality" Taxonomies: Metatheoretical and Methodological Rationales Underlying Selection Approaches, Methods of Data Generation and Reduction Principles. Integr Psychol Behav Sci 2016; 49:531-89. [PMID: 25249469 DOI: 10.1007/s12124-014-9280-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Taxonomic "personality" models are widely used in research and applied fields. This article applies the Transdisciplinary Philosophy-of-Science Paradigm for Research on Individuals (TPS-Paradigm) to scrutinise the three methodological steps that are required for developing comprehensive "personality" taxonomies: 1) the approaches used to select the phenomena and events to be studied, 2) the methods used to generate data about the selected phenomena and events and 3) the reduction principles used to extract the "most important" individual-specific variations for constructing "personality" taxonomies. Analyses of some currently popular taxonomies reveal frequent mismatches between the researchers' explicit and implicit metatheories about "personality" and the abilities of previous methodologies to capture the particular kinds of phenomena toward which they are targeted. Serious deficiencies that preclude scientific quantifications are identified in standardised questionnaires, psychology's established standard method of investigation. These mismatches and deficiencies derive from the lack of an explicit formulation and critical reflection on the philosophical and metatheoretical assumptions being made by scientists and from the established practice of radically matching the methodological tools to researchers' preconceived ideas and to pre-existing statistical theories rather than to the particular phenomena and individuals under study. These findings raise serious doubts about the ability of previous taxonomies to appropriately and comprehensively reflect the phenomena towards which they are targeted and the structures of individual-specificity occurring in them. The article elaborates and illustrates with empirical examples methodological principles that allow researchers to appropriately meet the metatheoretical requirements and that are suitable for comprehensively exploring individuals' "personality".
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Affiliation(s)
- Jana Uher
- Department of Psychology, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK. .,Comparative Differential and Personality Psychology, Free University Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195, Berlin, Germany.
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Observations versus assessments of personality: A five-method multi-species study reveals numerous biases in ratings and methodological limitations of standardised assessments. JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN PERSONALITY 2016. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2016.02.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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Uher J. What is Behaviour? And (when) is Language Behaviour? A Metatheoretical Definition. JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR 2016. [DOI: 10.1111/jtsb.12104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jana Uher
- The London School of Economics and Political Science; Department of Social Psychology; Houghton Street WC2A 2AE London United Kingdom
- Free University Berlin; Comparative Differential and Personality Psychology; Germany
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Uher J, Werner CS, Gosselt K. From observations of individual behaviour to social representations of personality: Developmental pathways, attribution biases, and limitations of questionnaire methods. JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN PERSONALITY 2013. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2013.03.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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12
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Contextualised behavioural measurements of personality differences obtained in behavioural tests and social observations in adult capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN PERSONALITY 2013. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2013.01.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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Lopresti-Goodman SM, Kameka M, Dube A. Stereotypical behaviors in chimpanzees rescued from the african bushmeat and pet trade. Behav Sci (Basel) 2013; 3:1-20. [PMID: 25379223 PMCID: PMC4217614 DOI: 10.3390/bs3010001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2012] [Revised: 12/17/2012] [Accepted: 12/18/2012] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Many orphaned chimpanzees whose mothers are illegally killed for their meat (bushmeat) in Africa are sold as pets or kept caged at hotels and businesses to attract tourists. As a result of being separated from their mothers and other chimpanzees at an early age, and spending years in impoverished captive conditions, some of these individuals engage in abnormal behaviors, including stereotypically scratching at their flesh and repetitively rocking back and forth. This paper presents case studies of Poco and Safari, two chimpanzees who were rescued by sanctuaries after living alone on display for humans at businesses for the first 7 to 8 years of their lives. Decades after their rescue, they still engage in stereotypical behaviors as a result of the psychological and physical trauma they endured early on. This paper combines data from in depth interviews with caregivers and direct observations of abnormal behaviors to assess psychological distress in captive-living chimpanzees. Our results highlight some lesser known harms of the bushmeat trade and the detrimental life-long consequences that keeping chimpanzees as "pets" can have on their mental health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stacy M. Lopresti-Goodman
- Marymount University, Department of Psychology, 2807 North Glebe Road, Arlington, VA 22207, USA; E-Mails: (M.K.); (A.D.)
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Uher J. Personality psychology: lexical approaches, assessment methods, and trait concepts reveal only half of the story--why it is time for a paradigm shift. Integr Psychol Behav Sci 2013; 47:1-55. [PMID: 23389471 PMCID: PMC3581768 DOI: 10.1007/s12124-013-9230-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
This article develops a comprehensive philosophy-of-science for personality psychology that goes far beyond the scope of the lexical approaches, assessment methods, and trait concepts that currently prevail. One of the field's most important guiding scientific assumptions, the lexical hypothesis, is analysed from meta-theoretical viewpoints to reveal that it explicitly describes two sets of phenomena that must be clearly differentiated: 1) lexical repertoires and the representations that they encode and 2) the kinds of phenomena that are represented. Thus far, personality psychologists largely explored only the former, but have seriously neglected studying the latter. Meta-theoretical analyses of these different kinds of phenomena and their distinct natures, commonalities, differences, and interrelations reveal that personality psychology's focus on lexical approaches, assessment methods, and trait concepts entails a) erroneous meta-theoretical assumptions about what the phenomena being studied actually are, and thus how they can be analysed and interpreted, b) that contemporary personality psychology is largely based on everyday psychological knowledge, and c) a fundamental circularity in the scientific explanations used in trait psychology. These findings seriously challenge the widespread assumptions about the causal and universal status of the phenomena described by prominent personality models. The current state of knowledge about the lexical hypothesis is reviewed, and implications for personality psychology are discussed. Ten desiderata for future research are outlined to overcome the current paradigmatic fixations that are substantially hampering intellectual innovation and progress in the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jana Uher
- Comparative Differential and Personality Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
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15
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How not to measure boldness: novel object and antipredator responses are not the same in wild baboons. Anim Behav 2012. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.06.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 135] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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Adams MJ, King JE, Weiss A. The majority of genetic variation in orangutan personality and subjective well-being is nonadditive. Behav Genet 2012; 42:675-86. [PMID: 22460560 DOI: 10.1007/s10519-012-9537-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2011] [Accepted: 03/12/2012] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
The heritability of human personality is well-established. Recent research indicates that nonadditive genetic effects, such as dominance and epistasis, play a large role in personality variation. One possible explanation for the latter finding is that there has been recent selection on human personality. To test this possibility, we estimated additive and nonadditive genetic variance in personality and subjective well-being of zoo-housed orangutans. More than half of the genetic variance in these traits could be attributed to nonadditive genetic effects, modeled as dominance. Subjective well-being had genetic overlap with personality, though less so than has been found in humans or chimpanzees. Since a large portion of nonadditive genetic variance in personality is not unique to humans, the nonadditivity of human personality is not sufficient evidence for recent selection of personality in humans. Nonadditive genetic variance may be a general feature of the genetic structure of personality in primates and other animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark James Adams
- Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK.
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Carter AJ, Marshall HH, Heinsohn R, Cowlishaw G. Evaluating animal personalities: do observer assessments and experimental tests measure the same thing? Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2011. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-011-1263-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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Uher J. Individual behavioral phenotypes: An integrative meta-theoretical framework. Why “behavioral syndromes” are not analogs of “personality”. Dev Psychobiol 2011; 53:521-48. [DOI: 10.1002/dev.20544] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2010] [Accepted: 02/07/2011] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
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How to Measure Animal Personality and Why Does It Matter? Integrating the Psychological and Biological Approaches to Animal Personality. FROM GENES TO ANIMAL BEHAVIOR 2011. [DOI: 10.1007/978-4-431-53892-9_5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
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Freeman HD, Gosling SD. Personality in nonhuman primates: a review and evaluation of past research. Am J Primatol 2010; 72:653-71. [PMID: 20568079 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.20833] [Citation(s) in RCA: 132] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
Scientific reports of personality in nonhuman primates are now appearing with increasing frequency across a wide range of disciplines, including psychology, anthropology, endocrinology, and zoo management. To identify general patterns of research and summarize the major findings to date, we present a comprehensive review of the literature, allowing us to pinpoint the major gaps in knowledge and determine what research challenges lay ahead. An exhaustive search of five scientific databases identified 210 relevant research reports. These articles began to appear in the 1930s, but it was not until the 1980s that research on primate personality began to gather pace, with more than 100 articles published in the last decade. Our analyses of the literature indicate that some domains (e.g., sex, age, rearing conditions) are more evenly represented in the literature than are others (e.g., species, research location). Studies examining personality structure (e.g., with factor analysis) have identified personality dimensions that can be divided into 14 broad categories, with Sociability, Confidence/Aggression, and Fearfulness receiving the most research attention. Analyses of the findings pertaining to inter-rater agreement, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, generally support not only the reliability of primate personality ratings scales but also point to the need for more psychometric studies and greater consistency in how the analyses are reported. When measured at the level of broad dimensions, Extraversion and Dominance generally demonstrated the highest levels of inter-rater reliability, with weaker findings for the dimensions of Agreeableness, Emotionality, and Conscientiousness. Few studies provided data with regard to convergent and discriminant validity; Excitability and Dominance demonstrated the strongest validity coefficients when validated against relevant behavioral criterion measures. Overall, the validity data present a somewhat mixed picture, suggesting that high levels of validity are attainable, but by no means guaranteed. Discussion focuses on delineating major theoretical and empirical questions facing research and practice in primate personality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hani D Freeman
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, 78712, USA
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