Skip navigation

From observations of individual behaviour to social representations of personality: Developmental pathways, attribution biases, and limitations of questionnaire methods

From observations of individual behaviour to social representations of personality: Developmental pathways, attribution biases, and limitations of questionnaire methods

Uher, Jana ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2450-4943, Werner, Christina S. and Gosselt, Karlijn (2013) From observations of individual behaviour to social representations of personality: Developmental pathways, attribution biases, and limitations of questionnaire methods. Journal of Research in Personality, 47 (5). pp. 647-667. ISSN 0092-6566 (doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2013.03.006)

[thumbnail of Author Accepted Manuscript]
Preview
PDF (Author Accepted Manuscript)
18191 UHER_Observations_of_Individual_Behaviour_2013.pdf - Accepted Version

Download (336kB) | Preview

Abstract

Socio-cognitive abilities to recognise and to represent individual-specificity—even in some nonhuman species—are central to human life. Using a novel philosophy-of-science paradigm, we explored these abilities over 3 years in 6 waves by investigating individual-specific behaviours of 104 crab-eating macaques (Macaca fascicularis) and the representations that 99 human observers—experts and novices—developed of them. By applying the non-lexical Behavioural Repertoire × Environmental Situations Approach, we generated 18 macaque-specific personality constructs. They were operationalised with behavioural measures to study the macaques and with two rating formats to study the observers’ representations. Analyses of reliability, cross-method coherence, taxonomic structures, associations with demographic factors, and 12–24-month stabilities highlighted essential differences between individual-specific behaviours and pertinent representations, explored developmental pathways of representations, and illuminated attribution biases and limitations of questionnaire methods.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: age differences, anthropomorphic bias, attribution bias, behavioural repertoire x environmental situations approach, macaque personality inventory for captive populations (MPIc), lexical approach, personality assessment, sex differences, gender differences, social representations, social status
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group: Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences
Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > School of Human Sciences (HUM)
Related URLs:
Last Modified: 01 Dec 2017 16:00
URI: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/18191

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics