Research into primate personality and social relationships

Comparative Differential and Personality Research

Comparative Differential and Personality Research is the study of the individuals' stable behavioural tendencies in which they differ from one another, and with which they can thus be characterised. To gain insights into the proximate mechanisms, ontogenetic development, and the adaptive and phylogenetic bases of such variability among individuals, it is most interesting to study diverse populations of human and nonhumans species. Given that individual-specific behavioural tendencies are not directly observable; theoretical concepts, methodological approaches, and methods of measurement are crucial for scientific investigations. Many meta-theoretical and methodological advances made in the study of human personality over the last century are equally applicable to nonhuman species. The enormous diversity across species and unique possibilities for cross-species comparisons also let emerge previously unaddressed methodological challenges. They can be tackled systematically by generalising established methodologies developed for cross-cultural comparisons of human personality variation (Uher, 2008a,b).

Three methodological core issues
The overall methodological framework in Comparative Differential and Personality Research integrates three core issues. They are necessarily interdependent, but have to be distinguished from one another because they address different methodological questions that require different types of methodology.

1. Meta-theoretical conceptualisations of variations of individual-specific patterns within and across populations
   • How can we quantify the individuals' unique behavioural tendencies (their personality) empirically in both human and nonhuman species?
   • When individuals are all unique, how can we compare them empirically to one another?
   • And how can we compare variations of individual-specific patterns among different populations, such as among species?
      
2. Methodological approaches to identify domains of individual-specific variation
   • In which behavioural domains should we search for variations of individual-specific patterns (personality differences)? In other words, how can we decide what to study at all in a species?
      
3. Methods of measurement
• How can we measure variations of individual-specific patterns reliably in our species of interest?
• Under which conditions are personality ratings valid tools of individual assessments in nonhuman species? 

Addressing all three methodological core issues systematically is essential for descriptive explorations of the between-individual variability in a population as a first step prior to explanatory analyses aimed at answering Tinbergen’s four key questions with respect to intra-individual functioning. They are essential and informative for broad areas of research because all studies are ultimately based on the conceptualisation, selection, and measurement of the concepts of personality they investigate (Uher, 2008b).

References:

• Uher, J. (2008a). Comparative personality research: Methodological approaches (Target article). European Journal of Personality, 22, 427-455. [pdf]  DOI
• Uher, J. (2008b). Three methodological core issues in comparative personality research. European Journal of Personality, 22, 475-496. [pdf]  DOI