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Research into primate personality and social relationships |
Upcoming symposia 2010 |
Comparative Differential and Personality Research
© 2006-2010
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"Cross-species Perspectives on Differential and Personality Research" Convenors: Jana Uher &
Mark James Adams Differential and personality research in nonhuman species is a rapidly growing field that made significant advances over the last decade-largely unnoticed by psychologists, however. The symposium aims to highlight the potentials of cross-species perspectives that arise from the greater opportunities for naturalistic behaviour observation and experimental control in nonhuman species, from their more diverse neurological, behavioural, psychological, and social systems, and their greater variety in ecological adaptations and phylogenetic histories. Distinguished speakers present their work on a 40-year breeding experiment for single behavioural traits in farm foxes, factorial analyses of temperamental differences in mice studied in behavioural tests, ambulatory monitoring of individual differences in physiological and hormonal responses to different situations in geese, the utility of behavioural test and trait ratings as breeding selection tools in dogs, evolutionary patterns in primate personality differences, and meta-theoretical and methodological approaches to species-comprehensive differential and personality research. These studies illustrate the potential of comparative approaches for systematic explorations of psychobiological mechanisms and evolutionary principles that contribute to personality differences in human and nonhuman species. The particularities of nonhuman species also necessitate new meta-theoretical and methodological developments that can help to critically re-evaluate and extend research approaches of traditional differential and personality psychology. [symposium abstract] Our speakers are:
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"How to study personality differences in nonhuman primates" Convenors: Jana
Uher & Alexander
Weiss Individual differences that are commonly construed as personality differences are increasingly studied in prosimians, old and new world monkeys, and apes. Primatologists thereby focus on the psychobiological mechanisms, ontogenetic processes, adaptive advantages, and phylogenetic origins of individual differences within and between species. Yet meta-theoretical and methodological foundations of their primary empirical investigation are still not well established. What do we understand by personality differences at all? What methods are suitable to study them empirically in nonhuman primates? And how can personality differences be analyzed statistically? This symposium provides an overview about basic meta-theoretical concepts of personality, and different methodological approaches and methods of measurement. Participants present a meta-analysis of methods of personality measurement used in primate studies. Ethological quantifications of personality differences are demonstrated in zoo populations of chimpanzees. The utility of observer ratings and their power to explain patterns of friendship are shown in captive rhesus macaques. A longitudinal study in zoo populations of gorillas demonstrates the utility of observer ratings of personality differences for captive management. Particularly illuminating, yet also methodologically challenging are personality studies on wild populations. A study in Japanese macaques demonstrates some of these challenges and discusses interesting opportunities to validate personality differences with life-history traits. We close with a presentation of factor analytic methods to statistically identify basic dimensions of individual differences in empirical data. [symposium abstract] Our speakers are:
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"Vergleichende
Psychologie - Neue Implikationen für die Humanforschung" Convenors: Jana
Uher & Katja
Liebal Die Vergleichende Psychologie befasst sich mit den Übereinstimmungen und Verschiedenheiten im Verhalten von Menschen und Tieren. Durch die enorme Diversität nichtmenschlicher Spezies können dabei weitreichende Erkenntnisse in verschiedensten Forschungsgebieten gewonnen werden, z.B. in der Kognitions-, Kommunikations-, Evolutions-, Entwicklungs- und neuropsychologischen Forschung. Mit den berühmten Schimpansenstudien Wolfgang Köhlers in der Forschungsstation der Preußischen Wissenschaftsakademie hat die Vergleichende Psychologie starke Wurzeln auch im deutschsprachigen Forschungsgebiet. Doch ungeachtet dessen und trotz bedeutender internationaler Entwicklungen im letzten Jahrzehnt konnte sich die Vergleichende Psychologie bisher (noch) nicht in der deutschsprachigen Psychologie etablieren, wie u.a. im Fehlen einer DGPs-Fachgruppe deutlich wird. Aber auch hier gibt es international renommierte Forschung, von der wir in diesem Symposium einige bedeutende Forschungslinien vorstellen möchten, um die vielfältigen Anknüpfungspunkte mit der Humanforschung aufzuzeigen. Nach einer kurzen Einleitung stellen wir in fünf Beiträgen erstaunliche Forschungsergebnisse zur vergleichenden Kognitionsforschung bei nichtmenschlichen Primaten, Vögeln und verschiedenen menschlichen Kulturen sowie zur vokalen und taktil-visuellen Kommunikationsforschung vor, die tiefgreifende Erkenntnisse zur Evolution der kognitiven und sprachlichen Fähigkeiten des Menschen ermöglichen. [symposium abstract] Our speakers are:
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| Past symposia |
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"Multidisciplinary Advances in Animal
Personality Research". Invited Symposium at the 14th European
Conference on Personality (ECP
14) in Tartu, Estonia, July 16-20th, 2008. Convenors: Kees van Oers & Jana Uher.
NIOO-KNAW, Heteren, The Netherlands &
Humboldt University Berlin, Germany |