Personality & Individual Differences Flashcards
What do individuals differ in?
Size Colour Sensory perception Experience Genetics In their biases towards behaving in a particular way
How does D’Eath & Burn 2002 define personality?
Individual differences in behaviour that are stable across time and predictive of behaviour in other situations
Personality are a set of behaviours that can exist in different what?
Ages
Developmental stages
What is personality?
Personality are a set of behaviours consistently performed across multiple contexts
Consistent responses in just 1 context do not indicate personality because the individual might just have learned how to respond to that 1 specific context
Personality is also known as what and when are the terms used?
Temperament
This used to be commonly used to mean personality, however it’s now just used in certain fields
Behavioural syndromes
This is a term usually used in behavioural ecology
In what field do we use the term personality?
Applied ethology
Why is there different terms for personality?
The differences in terms is because it took a while for it to be accepted that non-human animals had personalities and so the word personality was exclusively reserved for humans until recently
These days terms used to explain personality tend to vary dependent on the field of study, and in some scientific fields it’s still a controversial topic to say animals have distinct personalities
Differences in personality are usually due to a mixture of what?
Genetic influences
Environmental influences
Some aspects of personality can be learned as long as they remain consistent across time and contexts after learning it it can be classified as part of the individuals personality
What differences do not affect personality?
Differences in behavioural responses that are attributed to broad factors do not normally count
Examples of broad factors that cause behavioural response differences are:
Breed
Gender
Species
True or false
Because behaviour is produced by the body itself explanations for personality can involve physiological mechanism
True
Give 2 examples of physiological mechanisms that can be used to explain an individual’s personality
Individuals that show exaggerated stress responses across time and contexts might do so because they have above average adrenal activity levels
Due to varying adrenal activity individuals will have different stress response thresholds
Individuals that are trusting and affectionate may have above average oxytocin levels than other individuals of their species
Some personality traits are so complex that we have yet to find a physiological explanation for them
Why is this and give an example of this?
This is mainly due to a lack of knowledge about the body and/or personality traits
An example of this is that people with psychopathic traits have certain brain characteristics however not everyone with those same brain patterns are serial killers
What kind of distribution model does personality have within a population?
Personality usually has a normal distribution within a population
You can make a normal distribution graph for a species population variation in a personality trait by measuring some physiological characteristics of the personality trait
Give examples of this
To measure stress variations you’d measure:
- frequency of escape responses
- cortisol levels
- stereotypic behaviour rate
- alarm call rate
To measure aggressiveness variations you’d measure:
- latency to attack
- testosterone levels
- serotonin levels
- frequency of threat postures
True or false
Understanding personality in non-human animals can’t help us understand personality in humans
False
Understanding personality in non-human animals can help us understand personality in humans
True or false
Understanding personality in non-human animals can’t help us understand personality in humans
False
Understanding personality in non-human animals can help us understand personality in humans
Give examples of how understanding personality in non-human animals can help us understand personality in humans
If we understand some functional aspects for the trait we could learn how to improve our happiness
To help us treat personality disorders
Animal welfare is geared towards ensuring a good life for each individual animal
Animals welfare recommendations may not always work as a “1 size fits all” solution if there are individual differences to how animals respond to different scenarios
Give examples of this
Stressy individuals may fear environmental environment that a more relaxed animal would love
Animals can be quite selective about who they get on with, and so understanding how different personalities clash can improve group dynamics
Give examples of how personality may have implications for conservation actions
Mate compatibility may be affected by personalities of the individuals which can alter breeding success in breeding programs
Individual personalities can also influence reintroduction success
Invasive species populations and individuals that are more likely to spread disease and understanding individual personality can help us identify which individuals are more likely to do this
True or false
Training and learning tasks can be tailored to specific personality types to improve their success
True
True or false
Personality can’t help predict, and prevent, future problems
False
Personality can help predict, and prevent, future problems
What is Belyaevs russian fox experiment?
Belyaev’s russian fox experiment is an experiment that wanted to see if choosing foxes based on their personality could recreate how dogs were created
What does Belyaev’s fox experiment show?
Belyaev’s fox experiment shows that gene expression for a behaviour is interlinked for other phenotypic traits
So if you select for 1 specific trait you’d also select for a bunch of other unintended traits
In humans how is personality determined?
In humans questionnaires are nearly always used to study individual personalities in humans
This is mainly because we can understand each other easily and self-report our own personality traits
How are questionnaires used to detect non-human animal personalities?
For non-human animals we can’t directly ask them questions about their personality
To overcome this we can ask the humans who live and work closely with the animals about the animals personality
The longer a particular owner or carer has been with that particular individual animal the more robust/better quality of the data collected by the questionnaire
The experience of the survey respondents plays a role in the validity of the questionnaires as a tool to assess animal personality
True or false
You can measure the responses to different but related situations through behavioural tests
True
How would you measure the responses to different but related situations through behavioural tests?
Responses to different but related situations can be measured over time
This is done more in non-human animals than with humans
To do this you’d measure the individuals response to a standardised test/series of tests and repeat them at at different ages or across different contexts
Give examples of tests we can use to measure responses to different but related situations
Restraint test Open field test Novel object test Feeding competition test Resident intruder test Human approach test
What happens in a restraint test?
A restraint test is where you’d limit the movement of an animal for a brief period of time and then record their responses
The animal can be restrained by tethering or close confinement in a weighing crate
Examples of responses you could record are vocalisation frequency, freezing behaviour, and escape behaviour
What happens in a open field test?
An open field test is where you’d separate the animal from its pen or herd mates and place it in a novel arena for a brief time a land records its responses
Examples of responses you can record are vocalisation, exploration, freezing, and activity
The animal species social system can make the open field test more or less appropriate for the individual
What happens in the novel object test?
The novel object test is a classic test
The novel object test is where you present the individual with a novel species relevant object in their home pen or in an experimental area and measure their responses to it
Examples of what responses you can measure are:
- latency to approach the object
- duration of contact with the object
- average distance from the object
- how they interact with the object
What happens in the feeding competition test?
The feeding competition test is where you’d measure aggression and social rank by placing a single highly valued food source in a pen with a certain number of animals and record their responses
Examples of what responses you’d measure are:
- aggression
- duration/rate of food access
- latency to approach food resources
- displacement of food resources
What happens in the resident intruder test?
The resident intruder test is where you’d get an individual animal and make them confront an unknown conspecific in their home pen and measure the responses
Examples of responses you’d record are aggression, tactile contact, and inter-animal distance
What happens in the human approach test?
The human approach test is where an individual animal is placed in an arena with only a human in the pen with them and you’d record the animals response to the human
The location in which the experiment is done can be familiar or unfamiliar to the animal
Examples of responses you’d record are:
- latency for the animal to voluntarily approach the human
- responses to an approach by a human
- frequency of tactile contact between the animal and human
- duration of tactile contact between the animal and human
With any personality test what is important for you to understand?
With all the potential personality tests it’s important to understand the individuals species behaviour and what they mean
This is because the same behaviour can have opposite meaning between species
Due to this you must know the meaning of the behaviour of your test species before interpreting any data from personality tests
True or false
Personality tests on European mink showed that personalities are predictive of reintroduction success
True
How can personality types be discovered?
Personality types can be discovered through correlating individual responses to either:
- responses to different but related tests
- responses to different questions in a questionnaire
In human personality traits what are the “big 5” domains?
1) Openness to experience
2) Conscientiousness
3) Extraversion
4) Agreeableness
5) Neuroticism
How would you map an individual’s personality type if they’re from a species distantly related to humans?
To map an individuals personality type from a species not clearly related to humans we can look at their coping style
What are the 2 coping styles for species distantly related to humans and explain what they mean?
Proactive coping style
These are individuals that respond with the following behaviours bold, fight or flight, learn fast and impulsive
Reactive coping style
Theses are individuals that respond with shy, freeze or hide, take longer to learn and are more careful
True or false
Some scientists theorise that more reactive individuals will develop stereotypic behaviour as a coping mechanism
False
Some scientists theorise that more proactive individuals will develop stereotypic behaviour as a coping mechanism
How are coping styles distributed on a graph?
In some species the coping style responses are normally distributed with proactive and reactive individuals at the extremes
In other species the distribution of coping styles seems to be bimodal with 2 types of individual coping styles that do better under different conditions
Bimodal = 2 set behaviours that the population is split between and do better in different conditions
How does evolution affect personality?
The evolution of personality means that if 1 personality isn’t useful then it won’t be seen in the next generation
However, the personalities remain in the species population in fluctuating numbers to ensure that at any given time some individuals of that species have the correct personality to survive
This ensures the survival of the species as a whole
What maintains the variation in individual personalities within a population?
Fluctuating changes in ecological and environmental conditions maintains the variation in individual personalities within a population
How can understanding personality affect decisions about which individuals we release into the wild?
Understanding personality and its effect on fitness and how this depends on environmental conditions may aid decisions about which individuals to release into the wild and when
What 3 things do mortality rates depends on?
Ecological niche of the species
Species social structure
Environmental threats
True or false
Understanding individual factors that increase an individual’s fitness may be a necessary tool for conservation, breeding and reintroduction programs
True
True or false
Certain types of personalities tend to have certain diseases
True
Can breeds have personalities?
Yes
