Animal Personality What Are Behavioural

Biol. Rev. (2013), 88, pp. 465–475. 465 doi: 10.1111/brv.12007 Animal personality: what are behavioural ecologists measuring? Alecia J. Carter 1,2, ∗,† , William E. Feeney 3 , Harry H. Marshall 2,4 , Guy Cowlishaw 2 and Robert Heinsohn 1 1 The Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia 2 Zoological Society of London, The Institute of Zoology, Regent’s Park, NW1 4RY, London, UK 3 Evolution, Ecology and Genetics, The Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia 4 Division of Ecology and Evolution, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Berkshire, SL5 7PY, UK ABSTRACT The discovery that an indiv idua l may be constr ained , and even behav e sub- optimally, becaus e of its perso nalit y type has fundamental implications for understanding individual- to group-level processes. Despite recent interest in the study of animal personalities within behavioural ecology, the field is fraught with conceptual and methodological difficulties inherent in any you ng dis cip line. We rev iew the current agreement of defi nit ion s and met hod s use d in per sonali ty stu die s across taxa and systems, and find that current methods risk misclassifying traits. Fortunately, these problems have been fac ed bef ore by other simila r fiel ds dur ingtheir inf ancy, af for din g imp ort ant opp ort uni tie s to lea rn fro m past mis tak es. We rev iew the tools tha t were dev eloped to overcome simila r met hod ologic al pro ble ms in psy cholog y. The se tools emp has ise the importance of at tempti ng to meas ur e animal pers onal it y traits using mult iple tests and the care that nee ds to be ta ken whe n int erpret ing cor rel ati ons bet wee n per sonali ty tra its or the ir tes ts. Acco rdi ngl y, we sugges t an int egr ati ve theo ret ica l framework that incorporates these tools to facilitate a robust and unified approach in the study of animal personality. Key words : animal personality, behav ioural syndromes, bold ness, exploration, methods, risk-taking . CONTENTS I. Intro ducti on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466 II. Problems measur ing personality traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466 (1) Many tes ts for one tr ait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466 (2) One test f or many tr aits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468 III. Lesson s from other fie lds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468 (1) An impo rtant ca veat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468 (2) Test valid ity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468 ( a ) Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469 ( b ) Convergent and discriminant validity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469 ( c ) Other validities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469 (3) Jingle-jangle fa llacies and tr ait definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470 (4) Inter preti ng tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470 (5) Measurement considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471 IV. How to mea sure personality traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472 V. Conclu sions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473 VI. Acknowledge ments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473 VII. Refer ences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473 * Addre ss for co rresp onden ce (Tel: +44 1223 769277; Fax: +44 1223 336676; E-mail: [email protected]). † Present address: Large Animal Research Group, Department of Zoology, The University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. Biological Reviews 88 (2013) 465–475 © 2012 The Authors. Biological Reviews © 2012 Cambridge Philosophical Society

Animal Personality What Are Behavioural

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