Lecture 24 Flashcards
What is personality in terms of human psychology?
Temperament relates to differences in emotionality, or inherited tendencies demonstrated in early life
* the foundation of personality
Personality relates to the ‘sense of self’ or personal character which develops over time
What is personality in terms of animal behaviour research?
- Temperament has been used, largely because personality may suggest anthropomorphism
- The relationship between personality and a ‘sense of self’ is debated in animals
What is personality?
- Personality, temperament, coping styles, behavioural types: now agreed to be synonymous
- Definition: “individual behavioural differences that are consistent over time and across situations.”
- Influenced by genes & environment
What is state, trait, and type?
Increasing levels of complexity:
State
- Response to a given situation
- Eg. Afraid, excited, or curious - in the moment
Trait
- State observed in variety of situations
- Eg. Fearful, excitable, inquisitive - in general
Type
- Combination of traits that makes up an individual’s character
What are the types of combination of traits?
- Extraversion, Neuroticism (how likely you are to experienceuncomfortable feelings)
- Extrovert/Introvert
- Calm/Fearful
Why consider temperament?
Temperament is an important selection criterion:
In companion species:
* Horse temperament affects use and quality as a riding horse
* Dog temperament used in service dog selection
In livestock species:
* Focus on traits related to production and management
What are some important temperament traits in pigs?
- Sow line - low aggression, strong maternal traits
- Boar line - low aggression, ease of handling, low stress
How Can we modify behaviour?
Genetic selection
* Behavioural traits are moderately heritable
Management - learned behaviours
* Use daily management to ‘train’ animals
* Eg. habituation, positive reinforcement to reduce fear, early socialization to reduce aggression
Combined approach of genetic selection and positive management is most productive
What do we need to know before selecting for behaviour traits?
Heritability of each trait
* can we expect genetic progress
Genetic variation
* how different are individual sows
Association between traits
* If we select against aggression, will we influence maternal behaviour
Can select individuals for sociability or suitability for a specific environment
need to be careful because we dont know the impacts oflow varibility (tasmanian devils are so imbred they get face tumors)
What is the importance of individual differences?
We manage the ‘average’ animal
* nutrition, temperature preference
In reality, we must accomodate the extremes
* the largest and smallest animals
* handling facilities, pen design
* fence height, distractions
In some cases the extremes refer to behavioural characteristics
* Flightiness, fearfulness
* Especially with farmed wild species - bison, deer, elk
What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator/DISC program
Model of temperament (personality)
* common tool in human resources (HR)
* management training: self-awareness, leadership
What does DISC stand for and what doe each mean?
Dominance
* Direct, results oriented, firm, strong-willed, forceful
Influence
* outgoing, enthusiastic, optimistic, high-spirited, lively
Steadiness
* even-tempered, accommodating, patient, humble, tactful
Conscientiousness
* analytical, reserved, percise, private, systematic
What is the Five Factor Model - ‘The Big Five’?
- 5 dimensions in human psychology (OCEAN)
- Similar traits found in animal research - esp. E&N
- Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neurotocism
- 4/5 commonly found in animal studies -
- conscientiousness found in chimpanzees
What is the bold/shy continuum?
It refers to an individual’s reaction to risky situations with the boldest individuals taking the most risks and the shyest ones avoiding them
What is behavioural ecology?
explanation of temperament based on natural selection
What are the different types that succeed in different environments?
- Predation pressure (shy if lots of predators)
- Social competition (bold)
- Resource distribution (bold if low resources)
- Environment is always changing/in flux
- Distribution of types changes over time
What are some active and passive traits (coping styles - proactive/reactive)?
Active: aggression, territorial response
- Bold
- High responders
- Short attack latency
- Sympathetic tone - high testosterone, serotonergic tone
- Stable environment - dominant, inflexible
Passive: immobility and low levels of aggression
- Shy
- Low responders
- Long attack latency
- Parasympathetic - elevated cortisol baseline
- Changing environment - eg. migration, flexible
What is the methodology for evaluating behaviour?
- Cannot be measured directly
- Requires multiple indirect measures
- Patterns of behaviour/observational
- Observer ratings: subjective scores
- Behavioural Tests
What are observer ratings?
- Subjective assessment
- eg. ‘Qualitative Behavioural Assessment’
- Behavioural states are defined:
- Tense, Afraid, Relaxed, Excited, Curious
- Many independent observers - subjective scoring
- Inter-observer reliability of scores is analyzed
- Used in zoos and some farm animal welfare assessments - eg. EU ‘Welfare Quality’ System
What are scales with predefined scores?
- Subjective scores: observer ratings are based on a predefined system
- Examples: lameness or exit speed in cattle
- ‘Emotionality’ in horses - in a chute and on release
- Categories assessed: escapetendencies, reactivity to people, behaviour after release, and overall emotionality
- Each category: scored 1-4 forhighly nervous, nervous, normal or quiet
- Inter-observer reliability determined
Why are individual differences important?
Scientific and management reasons
- Scientific data- highvariability but individual differences are not measured
- identifying individual differences can reduce variation and improve our understanding
What are the 2 categories of scientific errors?
- Type 1 error - ‘false positive’ (find an effect but there is no actual effect)
- Type 2 error - ‘false negative’ (find no effect but there actually is one) - with more variety you are more likely to get this
eg. if a treatment affects ‘type A’ animals differently from ‘type B’, but the difference is not considered. we will conclude no effect where one exists: Stoic animals
