Individual behavioral phenotypes: An integrative meta‐theoretical framework. Why “behavioral syndromes” are not analogs of “personality”

Abstract

Jana UherIndividual behavioral phenotypes: an integrative meta-theoretical framework. Why "behavioral syndromes" are not analogs of "personality" Article (Accepted version) (Refereed) This document is the author's final accepted version of the journal article. There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it. Uher, J. (2011) Developmental Psychobiology, 53, . Individual behavioral phenotypes: An integrative meta-theoretical framework. Why 'behavioral syndromes' are not analogues of 'personality'. AbstractAnimal researchers are increasingly interested in individual differences in behavior. Their interpretation as meaningful differences in behavioral strategies stable over time and across contexts, adaptive, heritable, and acted upon by natural selection has triggered new theoretical developments. However, the analytical approaches used to explore behavioral data still address population-level phenomena, and statistical methods suitable to analyze individual behavior are rarely applied. I discuss fundamental investigative principles and analytical approaches to explore whether, in what ways, and under which conditions individual behavioral differences are actually meaningful. I elaborate the meta-theoretical ideas underlying common theoretical concepts and integrate them into an overarching metatheoretical and methodological framework. This unravels commonalities and differences, and shows that assumptions of analogy to concepts of human personality are not always warranted and that some theoretical developments may be based on methodological artifacts. Yet, my results also highlight possible directions for new theoretical developments in animal behavior research.

Developing “Personality” Taxonomies: Metatheoretical and Methodological Rationales Underlying Selection Approaches, Methods of Data Generation and Reduction Principles

“…In these frameworks, concepts, approaches and methods from various scientific disciplines are systematically integrated, further developed and complemented by novel ones (Uher 2011a;; therefore, it is a transdisciplinary paradigm. It emphasises the importance of making explicit the philosophical presuppositions that are being made in a given scientific system and the metatheories and methodologies that are derived from them and aims to make these explicit in the fields that it explores; therefore, it is a philosophy-of-science paradigm.…”

“…Therefore, "objectivity" can be only intersubjectivity and intersubjective consensus can be reached only on the basis of shared philosophical presuppositions. The explicit formulation and critical discussion of such presuppositions are thus essential for analysing theories and methodologies (Fahrenberg 2013;Uher 2011a) as done in this trilogy (Uher 2014a, c).…”

“…To be specific to an individual, the patterns must differ between individuals (i.e., be differential) in ways that are stable for at least some amount of time (i.e., be temporally stable ;Uher 2011aUher , 2013. The TPS-Paradigm highlights that individualspecificity cannot be directly perceived because it denotes temporal, differential and, in momentary and fluctuating phenomena, also probabilistic patterns.…”

“…Building on a classification system established for selection approaches used in the much smaller and younger field of nonhuman primate "personality" research (Uher 2008a(Uher , 2011a(Uher , 2011b, the TPS-Paradigm provides a system for classifying selection approaches that are applied in human "personality" research with a focus on methodological approaches that are targeted at comprehensive taxonomies (ignoring those targeted at selected domains of individual differences; cf. Uher 2013, Desideratum 1c).…”

“…Psychical representations are also prone to various fallacies of the human mind. For example, as individuals are substantially similar to one another given their conspecifically shared Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 49, 531-589. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12124-014-9280-4 http://janauher.com 22/50 organismal properties (Uher 2011a(Uher , 2011b, people abstract from commonalities and focus on the minor variations that are informative for differentiating highly similar individuals. Therefore, people pay attention to fine-grained differences, for example, in the faces and behaviours of individuals in their population, but much less to what is common to all of them or what differentiates individuals from other human populations or from other species.…”