Personality in Animals

Question 1

Define the two dimensions of personality from psychology and neuroscience.

Answer 1

Temperament: fixed, innate, genetic, inherited, “biological” dimension of personality.

Character: dimension of personality modulated by learning, experience, the environment.

Question 2

Dugatkin’s definition of personality is restrictive and functional. What does this mean?

Answer 2

Focus on individual strategies, or at least the impact of individual differences on behavioural strategies.

Question 3

Diamond (1957), in his book “Personality and Temperament” reserves a full chapter for _____ and _____ and uses _____ terminology as a base for his discussion.

Answer 3

Cats; dogs; Pavlovian.

Question 4

Pavlov (1955) had a typology of the dog’s nervous system based on what?

Answer 4

Activity-reactivity to stimuli and their conditionability.

Question 5

What were the typologies of dogs’ nervous systems Pavlov (1955) proposed? What is the origin of this typology?

Answer 5

Weak nervous system: “Melancholic” dogs

Strong nervous system: two sub-types; Balanced - Mobile: “Sanguine” dogs, Slow: “Phlegmatic” dogs; Unbalanced: “Choleric” dogs.

Hippocrates, Galen.

Question 6

Réale et al. (2007) proposed what five typologies?

Answer 6

Shyness/boldness: response to risky situations.

Exploration (approach)/avoidance: response to novel situation.

Activity (in non-risky and non-novel situations).

Aggressiveness (towards conspecifics).

Sociability (towards conspecifics).

Question 7

Gosling (1998) proposed what five personality traits for the spotted hyena?

Answer 7

Assertiveness.

Excitability.

Agreeableness (human-directed).

Sociability.

Curiosity.

Question 8

Monomorphic species have low play and high sibling aggression; oligomorphic species have moderate play and moderate sibling aggression; polymorphic species have high play and low sibling aggression.

Which canids belong in each category?

Answer 8

Monomorphic: most vulpines (fox-like).

Oligomorphic: most canines (coyotes, jackals).

Polymorphic: wolf, African wild dog, bush dog, dhole.

Question 9

The situational view combines what perspectives by which people? What does it suggest?

Answer 9

Evolutionary approach (D.S. Wilson) and situational specificity theory (Walter Mischel).

Cross-situational consistency in personality theory may be a myth. We should look at “situational specificity.”

Question 10

Shy-bold continuum provides high predictability, confirmed by studies by whom? Define boldness and shyness in the context of the continuum.

Answer 10

Kagan studies.

Boldness: risk taking, sensation seeking (Zuckerman studies), high sociability, leadership, dominance, initiative.

Shyness: tame behaviour, “relaxation seeking” (inhibited), low sociability, conformity, subordinance, following.

Question 11

Describe personality differences between “fast” birds and “slow” birds.

Answer 11

Fast: aggressive, approach novel objects, form foraging patterns.

Slow: nonaggressive, avoid novel objects, no foraging patterns.

Question 12

Testing personality relies on what three components?

Answer 12

Consistency.

Repeatability.

Heritability: lab experiments –> behavioural genetics.

Question 13

Field research provides what?

Answer 13

Knowledge of genealogies.

Question 14

Keeper surveys were used by Carlstead et al. (1999) to study what?

Answer 14

Traits associated with reduced breeding success.

Question 15

Réale et al. (2007) and Svendsen & Armitage (1973) used what technique to measure their respective theories?

Answer 15

Mirror image simulation.

Question 16

How can comparative research help study personality?

Answer 16

Comparison with natural behaviours in natural environments.

Question 17

A behavioural syndrome is what? What personality does it equate to?

Answer 17

Behave predictably across contexts and time.

Context-independent personality.

Question 18

A behavioural syndrome is not the same as a behavioural type. Why is this?

Answer 18

Refers to particular configuration an individual expresses, therefore property of an individual.

Question 19

List four strategies to study behaviour syndromes (Bell, 2007).

Answer 19

“Puzzling behaviour” approach.

The “candidate behaviour” approach: looking for relationships between behaviours that are part of a syndrome in other species.

The proximate or “bottom-up” approach: genes, hormones, neurotransmitters, etc.

The ecological approach: role of environment.

Question 20

List five examples of domain-specific individual differences for the candidate behaviour approach.

Answer 20

Shy–bold axis.

Proactive–reactive axis.

Aggressiveness.

Neophobia.

Exploratory behaviour.

Question 21

_____ in the phenotype is important to sociobiology.

Answer 21

Variability.

Question 22

What is a fitness consequence of bolder males?

Answer 22

Have increased reproductive success but at a survival cost; trade-off in fitness consequences.

Question 23

Watters & Meehan (2007) suggested personality is an important factor in post-release survival. What are the two steps they proposed?

Answer 23

Step 1: release the ones that have appropriate trait for survival.

Step 2: release the others when that population established.