ANBI411 Adler: personality

temperament

relates to difference in emotionality or inherited tendencies demonstrated in early life

personality

relates to the sense of self or personal character which developes over time

state

• response to a given situation

• eg: afraid, excited, or curious in the moment

trait

• state observed in variety of situations

• eg: fearful, excitable, inquisitive in general

type

combination of traits that makes up an individual character

neuroticim

a personality trait that describes how likely a person is to experience negative emotions, such as anxiety, worry, sadness, or irritability.

personality as a selection criterion

• horse temperament affects use and quality as a riding horse

• dog temperament used in service dog selection

• production and management

management - learned behaviours

use daily management to train animals

before selecting for behaviours traits, we need to know

• heritability of each trait

• genetic variation

• association between traits

scientific data

• high variability in response, but individual differences are not measured

• identifying individuals differences can reduce variation and improve our understanding

models of personality

• myers-briggs type indicator

• DISC program

• 5 factor model

DISC program

• dominace

• influence

• conscientiousness

• steadiness

5 factor model

• openess

• conscientiousness

• extraversion

• agreeableness

• neurotiscism

observer ratings

• subjective assessment

• behavioural states are defined: tense, afraid, relaxe, excited

• used in zoo and some farm animal welfare assessments

observer ratings: chute test

• assesses: escape tendencies, reactivity to people, behaviour after release, and overall emotionality

behavioural test: response to environmental challenges

• social isolation

• handling

• novel object test

• food competition

• social competition

behvaioural tests: aggression

• resident-intruder test

• assess individual propensity to attack

• resident and intruder test

behavioural test: general fearfulness

• open field test in rodents

• tonic immobility in poultry

behavioural test: fearfuless towards novel stimuli

• novel object tests

• tested in isolation or group setting

• not fearfull: rapid contact, short duration

• fearfull: slower to contact, longer duration

behavioural test: fearfullness towards humans

• avoidance distance test

• response to observer

• approach tests

jingle jangle fallacies

• jingle: same label, different traits

• jangle: different labels, same traits

many to one problem

different tests → same labeled trait

one to many problems

differen labeled traits ^{→ same tests}

protocol effects

• forced vs free exploration

• species differences

• environmental conditions

• habituation and prior experience

validity

refers to the degree to which a test measures the targeted outcome

convergent validity

investigates whether two tests actually measure the same trait

discriminant validity

investigates whether two tests that are employed to measure different traits actually measure different traits

reliability

refers to the consistency of a measure through time, across contexts or across rater/observers