Personality Flashcards
Lecture 2 notes and Principles of Animal Behaviour Fourth Edition
What is personality?
The individual differences in behaviour amongst animals which are consistent over time and generalisable across contexts. Personality traits are heritable.
How did the idea of personality in animal behaviour occur?
Individual differences in behaviour have been historically dismissed because ethologists were more interested about similarities and rules than outliers or variations in behaviour. However over tome it has been realised that individual variation could be advantageous such as having selective advantages.
Summarise why studying animal psychology is important
Important for the comparative approach allowing us to better understand humans
Can also help us understand humans better because we can use animals as models to conduct research which we could not ethically do on humans
Has practical implications such as animal-human interactions, animal welfare and animal conservation
What is the psychologists way of measuring personality?
Self-rating
Assessment by knowledgable informants e.g. peers, parents, teachers, keepers, vets, owner)
Items e.g curious = curious? “subject often touches new objects at great length”
Overall score, scales, and comparison with human personality theories
Trait assessments - rating how well series of adjectives applied to individual animals (very anthropomorphic)
How do biologists measure personality ?
Observation
Experimentations
Assessment by knowledgeable informants
What are the two levels of analysis when investigating personality?
Population specific personality traits: specific to a species, cannot be compared across species
Universal personality traits: consistent variation across species, can be compared
e.g shyness/boldness continuum
What determines animal behaviour?
Species’ biology strongly determines their behaviour . Comparing behavioural traits across species may therefore not be appropriate. eg lions and antelopes
Give an example of why biology should be taken into account when considering an animals behaviour
An escape response is easily triggered in antelopes compared to lions. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that antelopes are shy and lions are bold. The animals’ behaviour are a result of ecological pressures, their survival depends partly on their ability to run asap.
Personality traits are ‘real’ if ……
between-individual variation is greater than within-individual variation WITHIN a species
What is validity in terms of investigating personality?
Correspondence between rating and observed behaviour
What influences the validity of personality studies?
- knowledge of the species behaviour
- confounding factors
- independent observers (naive)
- ecological validity
What is reliability/ consistency in terms of investigating personality?
Correspondence between raters/ observers
What is a common problem with reliability when measuring personality ?
There is usually a problem with items that do not have a clear association with behaviour e.g eccentric, jealous vs dominant, aggressive
What is often missing in animal personality research?
Standard procedures in observational research ie intra or inter-observer reliability
Summarise evidence for animal personality involving hawks and chaffinches (Quinn & Cresswell, 2005)
Research into whether the personality of chaffinches influences their response to predators and if so are some personalities favoured under certain conditions. There was a correlation between level of activity and anti-predator response. Hypoactive personality is favoured under low predation pressure and hyperactive was favoured under high predation pressure.
Summarise evidence for reproductive success and personality involving Bighorn sheep (Reale et al, 2000)
Personality was measured as the likelihood to approach a salt lick associated with capture traps and how much time they spent near it. The time at 1st reproduction and weaning success was measured. It was found that bold males reproduce earlier and have higher weaning success than shy ones. Bold males = access to dangerous ares and more time feeding and better food
How does understanding animal behaviour allow us to understand ourselves (pre and early post-natal experience)?
Prenatal stress in pregnant rhesus macaques induced impaired neuro-motor development and attention deficit at birth. Negative effects persisted over time , they had an inhibited personality. Adult rhesus reared with minimal social experience show little social interest and competence towards others macaques.
How does understanding animal behaviour allow us to understand ourselves (gene x environment interactions)?
There are variations in the genes involved in the functioning of serotonin . Nursery raised rhesus macaques have better visual orientation and attention. Short allele associated with lower orientation and attention was found in only the nursery raised infant, not the mother raised. Nursery raised with short alley shower higher rates of aggressive behaviour.
How does understanding animal behaviour allow us to understand ourselves (personality and health relationship)?
Sociability and Simian Immunodeficiency virus (SIV- equivalent to human HIV) : individuals who score high on sociability showed greater decline in the viral load. (Strong predictor of survival)
How does understanding animal behaviour have practical applications (improved human-animal interactions) ?
Understanding animal personality reduces animals’ stress during husbandry procedures (e.g health check) or research protocols such as food samples. Moreover, assessing personality during interaction with novel objects can be used to determine which individuals are more suitable for training .
How does understanding animal behaviour have practical applications (improved human-animal interactions) ? domestic cats (Natoli et al. 2005)
Behavioural observations of 3 groups of feral cats . Recorded behaviour and found that some cats are more proactive (lots of aggression, territorial and reproductive behaviour) whereas other cats are more reactive (more submission). proactive cats have higher reproductive success however they are more likely to be infected with FIV which is lethal.
How does understanding animal behaviour have practical applications (improved conservation efforts) ? (Powell et al, 2008)
Introduction of novel objects and questionnaires were filled out by keepers, vets and trainers. The personalities of the giant pandas correlated with socio-sexual performances . shy = poorer sexual performance compared to bolder ones. These findings have important implication for breeding and conservation programmes.
How does understanding animal behaviour have practical applications (predicting survival in the wild) ? (Bremmer- Harrison et al, 2004)
Foxes assessed as ‘‘bold’’ (via presentation of novel objects / people and ratings) were not as good candidates for re0introduction. This equates to a lower survival rate and higher probability of leaving the release site (and therefore settling in more hostile habitats) .
Define personality type
A suite of behaviours that show consistent, long term differences between individuals.
Define boldness
The tendency to take risks in both familiar and unfamiliar situations.
Define shyness
Refers to the reluctance to take risks or even a reluctance to engage in unfamiliar activity at all.
