Synonyms
Related Topics
Individuality, Individual differences.
Definition
A multidisciplinary field that examines the variation in behaviors across individuals over contexts and time and animals.
Introduction
A fish emerging from its shelter after a predation attempt is considered daring and bold. Neonate monkeys that excessively react to various developmental tests when removed from their mothers are called neurotic or reactive. Octopuses that touch or manipulate novel objects are considered exploratory. For the last 40 years, personality, or the existence of individual differences that are stable and consistent over contexts and time, has been investigated more systematically in a number of animals across almost all major classes (i.e., mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, cephalopods, arthropods like spiders, crustaceans, and insects, and anthozoa like sea anemones). The main objective of this chapter is to summarize...
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References
Allport, G. W. (1961). Pattern and growth in personality. Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 6(6), 195–196.
Belgrad, B. A., Karan, J., & Griffen, B. D. (2017). Individual personality associated with interactions between physiological condition and the environment. Animal Behaviour, 123, 277–284.
Borstel, U. K. V. (2013). Assessing and influencing personality for improvement of animal welfare: A review of equine studies. CAB Review, 8(006), 1–27.
Briffa, M., & Sneddon, L. U. (2016). Proximate mechanisms of animal personality among-individual behavioural variation in animals. Behaviour, 153(13–14), 1509–1515.
Briffa, M., Greenaway, J., & Proulx, S. R. (2011). High in situ repeatability of behaviour indicates animal personality in the beadlet anemone Actinia equina (Cnidaria). PLoS ONE, 6(7), e21963.
Brodin, T., Fick, J., Jonsson, M., & Klaminder, J. (2013). Dilute concentrations of a psychiatric drug alter behavior of fish from natural populations. Science, 339(6121), 814–815. doi:10.1126/science.1226850.
Camerlink, I., Arnott, G., Farish, M., & Turner, S. P. (2016). Complex contests and the influence of aggressiveness in pigs. Animal Behaviour, 121, 71–78.
Carere, C., Grignani, G., Bonanni, R., Della Gala, M., Carlini, A., Angeletti, D., … Mather, J. A. (2015). Consistent individual differences in the behavioural responsiveness of adult male cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis). Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 167, 89–95.
Carlson, B. E., & Langkilde, T. (2013). Personality traits are expressed in bullfrog tadpoles during open-field trials. Journal of Herpetology, 47(2), 378–383.
Carlstead, K., Mellen, J., & Kleiman, D. G. (1999). Black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) in U.S. zoos: I. Individual behavior profiles and their relationship to breeding success. Zoo Biology, 18, 17–34.
Carter, R. (2014). The human brain book. New York, NY: Penguin.
Cattell. (1950). Personality: A systematic theoretical and factual study (689 pp.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Cervone, D. C., & Pervin, L. A. (2005). Trait theory: the five-factor model; applications and evaluation of trait approaches to personality. Personality: Theory and Research, 261–300.
Ciardelli, L. E., Weiss, A., Powell, D. M., & Reiss, D. (2017). Personality dimensions of the captive California sea lion (Zalophus californianus). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 131(1), 50.
Ciuti, S., Muhly, T. B., Paton, D. G., McDevitt, A. D., Musiani, M., & Boyce, M. S. (2012). Human selection of elk behavioural traits in a landscape of fear. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 279(1746), 4407–4416. doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.1483.
Coleman, K. (2012). Individual differences in temperament and behavioral management practices for nonhuman primates. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 137(3–4), 106–113.
Cussen, V. A., & Mench, J. A. (2015). The relationship between personality dimensions and resiliency to environmental stress in orange-winged Amazon parrots (Amazona amazonica), as indicated by the development of abnormal behaviors. PloS one, 10(6), e0126170.
Darwin, C. (1859/1996). The origin of the species (6th ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Digman, J. M. (1990). Personality structure: Emergence of the five-factor model. Annual Review of Psychology, 41(1), 417–440. doi:10.1146/annurev.ps.41.020190.002221.
Dingemanse, N. J., & Réale, D. (2005). Natural selection and animal personality. Behaviour, 142(9–10), 1159–1184.
Eysenck, H. J. (1992). Four ways five factors are not basic. Personality and Individual Differences, 13(6), 667–673.
Eysenck, H. J., & Eysenck, S. B. (2009). The biological basis of personality (3rd ed.). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
Fiske, D. W. (1949). Consistency of the factorial structures of personality ratings from different sources. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 44(3), 329.
Found, R., & St. Clair, C. (2016). Behavioural syndromes predict loss of migration in wild elk. Animal Behaviour, 115, 35–46.
Fratkin, J. L., Sinn, D. L., Patall, E. A., & Gosling, S. D. (2013). Personality consistency in dogs: A meta-analysis. PLoS ONE, 8(1), e54907. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0054907.
Freeman, H., & Gosling, S. (2010). Personality in nonhuman primates: A review and evaluation of past research. American Journal of Primatology, 71, 1–19.
Freeman, H., Gosling, S. D., & Schapiro, S. J. (2011). Comparison of methods for assessing personality in nonhuman primates. In Personality and temperament in nonhuman primates (pp. 17–40). New York: Springer.
Freeman, H. D., Brosnan, S. F., Hopper, L. M., Lambeth, S. P., Schapiro, S. J., & Gosling, S. D. (2013). Developing a comprehensive and comparative questionnaire for measuring personality in chimpanzees using a simultaneous top-down/bottom-up design. American Journal of Primatology, 75, 1042–1053.
Freud, S. (1905/1975). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. New York: Basic Books.
Gartner, M. C., & Powell, D. (2012). Personality assessment in snow leopards (Unciauncia). Zoo Biology, 31, 151–165.
Gartner, M. C. (2015). Pet personality: A review. Personality and Individual Differences, 75, 102–113.
Gartner, M. C., & Weiss, A. (2013). Personality in felids: A review. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 144(1), 1–13.
Gartner, M. C., Powell, D. M., & Weiss, A. (2014). Personality structure in the domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus), Scottish wildcat (Felis silvestris grampia), clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), snow leopard (Panthera uncia), and African lion (Panthera leo): A comparative study. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 128(4), 414–426. doi:10.1037/a0037104
Gold, K. C., & Maple, T. L. (1994). Personality assessment in the gorilla and its utility as a management tool. Zoo Biology, 13(5), 509–522.
Goldberg, L. R. (1981). Language and individual differences: The search for universals in personality lexicons. Review of Personality and Social Psychology, 2(1), 141–165.
Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative “description of personality”: The big-five factor structure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 1216–1229.
Gosling, S. D. (1998). Personality dimensions in spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 112(2), 107.
Gosling, S. (2001). From mice to men: What can we learn about personality from animal research? Psychological Bulletin, 127, 45–86.
Gosling, S. D. (2008). Personality in non-human animals. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(2), 985–1001.
Gosling, S. D., & John, O. P. (1999). Personality dimensions in nonhuman animals: A cross-species review. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8, 69–75.
Gottlieb, D., Capitanio, J., & McCowan, B. (2013). Risk factors for stereotypic behavior and self-biting in Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta): Animal’s history, current environment, and personality. American Journal of Primatology, 75, 995–1008.
Groothuis, T. G., & Carere, C. (2005). Avian personalities: characterization and epigenesis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 29(1), 137–150.
Hanbury, D. (2016). Anthropomorphism: Understanding personality and individual differences in nonhuman animals. Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences, 1–3. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_961-1.
Hare, B., Brown, M., Williamson, C., & Tomasello, M. (2002). The domestication of social cognition in dogs. Science, 298, 1634–1636.
Haverbeke, A., Laporte, B., Depiereux, D., Giffroy, J. M., Claire, D., & Diederich, C. (2008). Training methods of military dog handlers and their effects on the team’s performances. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 113, 110–122.
Highfill, L. E., & Kuczaj, S. A. (2007). Do bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) have distinct and stable personalities?. Aquatic Mammals, 33(3), 380.
Highfill, L. E., & Kuczaj, S. A. (2010). How studies of wild and captive dolphins contribute to our understanding of individual differences and personality. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 23(3).
Highfill, L., Fad, O., Makecha, R., & Kuczaj, S. (2013). Brief report: Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) may demonstrate stable personalities. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 26(3).
Hodos, W., & Campbell, C. B. G. (1969). Scala naturae: Why there is no theory in comparative psychology. Psychological Review, 76(4), 337.
Horback, K. M., Miller, L. J., & Kuczaj, S. A. (2013). Personality assessment in African elephants (Loxodonta africana): Comparing the temporal stability of ethological coding versus trait rating. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 149(1), 55–62.
Hudson, R., Bautista, A., Reyes, V., Morales Montor, J., & Rodel, H. G. (2011). Siblings as potential contributors to the development of personality in mammals: A brief review. Developmental Psychobiology. doi:10.1002/dev.20535.
Ijichi, C., Collins, L., & Elwood, R. (2013). Evidence for the role of personality in stereotypy predisposition. Animal Behaviour, 85, 1145–1151.
Jones, A. C., & Gosling, S. D. (2005). Temperament and personality in dogs (Canis familiaris): A review and evaluation of past research. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 95(1), 1–53.
Joshi, S., & Pillay, N. (2016). Association between personality and stereotypic behavior in the African striped mouse Rhabdomys dilectus. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 174, 154–161.
Kralj-Fišer, S., & Schuett, W. (2014). Studying personality variation in invertebrates: Why bother? Animal Behaviour, 91, 41–52.
Kristiansen, R. E., & Kuczaj, S. A. (2013). The use of a five factor model in equine personality research. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 26(4).
Kuczaj, S. A., & Eskelinen, H. C. (2014). Why do Dolphins play? Animal Behavior and Cognition, 2, 113. doi:10.12966/abc.05.03.2014.
Kuczaj, S., Highfill, L., & Byerly, H. (2012). The importance of considering context in the assessment of personality characteristics: Evidence from ratings of dolphin personality. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 25, 309–329.
Lansade, L., Philippon, P., Hervé, L., & Vidament, M. (2016). Development of personality tests to use in the field, stable over time and across situations, and linked to horses’ show jumping performance. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 176, 43–51.
Lilley, M., Kuczaj, S., & Yeater, D. (2017). Individual differences in non-human animals: Examining boredom, curiosity, and creativity. In J. Vonk, A. Weiss, & S. Kuczaj (Eds.), Personality in nonhumans. New York: Springer.
MacArthur, R. H., & Wilson, E. O. (2016). The theory of island biogeography. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
MacKay, J. R., & Haskell, M. J. (2015). Consistent individual behavioral variation: The difference between temperament, personality and behavioral syndromes. Animals, 5(3), 455–478.
MacKay, J. R., Haskell, M. J., Deag, J. M., & van Reenen, K. (2014). Fear responses to novelty in testing environments are related to day-to-day activity in the home environment in dairy cattle. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 152, 7–16.
Martin, M. (2014). The role of mate preference and personality on reproductive performance in an ex-situ conservation breeding program for the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). ProQuest dissertations and theses.
Mather, J. (1998). Individual differences. In G. Greenberg & M. M. Haraway (Eds.), Comparative psychology: A handbook (pp. 134–137). New York: Garland Publishing.
Mather, J. A., & Anderson, R. C. (1993). Personalities of octopuses (Octopus rubescens). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 107(3), 336.
McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (1987). Validation of the five-factor model of personality across instruments and observers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(1), 81.
McCrae, R. R., Costa Jr, P. T., Ostendorf, F., Angleitner, A., Hřebíčková, M., Avia, M. D., … Saunders, P. R. (2000). Nature over nurture: Temperament, personality, and life span development. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(1), 173.
Meyer, F., Schawalder, P., Gaillard, C., & Dolf, G. (2012). Estimation of genetic parameters for behavior based on results of German Shepherd dogs in Switzerland. Applied Animal Behavior Science, 140, 53–61.
Michelangeli, M., Wong, B. B., & Chapple, D. G. (2015). It’s a trap: Sampling bias due to animal personality is not always inevitable. Behavioral Ecology, 27(1), 62–67. doi:10.1093/beheco/arv123.
Pavlov, P. I. (1941). Lectures on conditioned reflexes: Vol. II. Conditioned reflexes and psychiatry. New York: International Publishers.
Pianka, E. R. (1970). On r and K selection. American Naturalist, 104(940), 592–597. doi:10.1086/282697.
Plomin, R. (1994). Genetics and experience: The interplay between nature and nurture. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Reddon, A. R. (2011). Parental effects on animal personality. Behavioral Ecology, 23(2), 242–245.
Siviter, H., Charles Deeming, D., Rosenberger, J., Burman, O. P., Moszuti, S. A., & Wilkinson, A. (2017). The impact of egg incubation temperature on the personality of oviparous reptiles. Animal Cognition, 20(1), 109–116. doi:10.1007/s10071-016-1030-1.
Skinner, B. F. (1938). The behaviour of organisms: An experimental analysis. D. Appleton-Century Company Incorporated.
Stevenson-Hinde, J., Stillwell-Barnes, R., & Zunz, M. (1980). Subjective assessment of rhesus monkeys over four successive years. Primates, 21, 66–82.
Stoinski, T. S., Jaicks, H. F., & Drayton, L. A. (2012). Visitor effects on the behavior of captive western lowland gorillas: The importance of individual differences in examining welfare: Visitor effects on gorilla behaviour. Zoo Biology, 31, 586–599.
Suomi, S. J. (1991). Early stress and adult emotional reactivity in rhesus monkeys. In The childhood environment and adult disease (pp. 171–188). Chichester: Wiley.
Tetley, C., & O’Hara, S. (2012). Ratings of animal personality as a tool for improving the breeding, management and welfare of zoo animals. Animal Welfare, 21, 463–476.
Toms, C. N., Echevarria, D. J., & Jouandot, D. J. (2010). A methodological review of personality-related studies in fish: Focus on the shy-bold axis of behavior. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 23(1).
Tooby, J., & Cosmides, L. (1989). Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture, part I: Theoretical considerations. Ethology and sociobiology, 10(1–3), 29–49.
Turkheimer, E., Pettersson, E., & Horn, E. E. (2014). A phenotypic null hypothesis for the genetics of personality. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 515–540. doi:10.1146/ annurev-psych-113011-143752.
Twiss, S. D., & Franklin, J. (2010). Individually consistent behavioural patterns in wild, breeding male grey seals (Halichoerusgrypus). Aquatic Mammals, 36, 234–238.
Vazire, S., & Gosling, S. D. (2004). Personality and temperament: A comparative perspective. In M. Bekoff (Ed.), Encyclopedia of animal behavior (pp. 818–822). Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Vukasović, T., & Bratko, D. (2015). Heritability of personality: A meta-analysis of behavior genetic studies. Psychological Bulletin, 141(4), 769.
Watters, J. V., & Powell, D. M. (2012). Measuring animal personality for use in population management in zoos: Suggested methods and rationale. Zoo Biology, 31(1), 1–12.
Wielebnowski, N. C. (1999). Behavioral differences as predictors of breeding status in captive cheetahs. Zoo Biology, 18, 335–349.
Wolf, M., Doorn, G. S., Leimar, O., & Weissing, F. J. (2007). Life-history trade-offs favour the evolution of animal personalities. Nature, 447(7144), 581–584. doi:10.1038/nature05835.
Wright, R. (1994). The moral animal: The new science of evolutionary psychology. New York: Pantheon Books.
Würbel, H., Bergeron, R., & Cabib, S. (2006). The coping hypothesis of stereotypic behaviour. In G. Mason & J. Rushen (Eds.), Stereotypic animal behaviour: Fundamentals and applications to welfare (pp. 14–15). Wallingford: CABI Publications.
Yuen, C. H., Pillay, N., Heinrichs, M., Schoepf, I., & Schradin, C. (2016). Personality traits are consistent when measured in the field and in the laboratory in African striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 70(8), 1235–1246. doi:10.1007/s00265-016-2131-1.
Zipser, B., Kaiser, S., & Sachser, N. (2013). Dimensions of animal personalities in guinea pigs. Ethology, 119(11), 970–982.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Hill, H.M., Yeater, D., Lenhart, E., Highfill, L. (2017). Comparative Perspective. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_968-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_968-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences