Dissertation Research: Behavioral Style and its Endocrine Correlates in Young Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

论文研究：幼年黑猩猩（Pan troglodytes）的行为风格及其内分泌相关性

• 批准号: 0120175
• 负责人: David Watts
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-12-01 至 2004-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0120175&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Behavioral; Style; its

Many psychologists have studied the influential role of personality in mediating how humans approach life. Physical anthropologists and primatologists have largely ignored this variable in nonhuman primates, focusing instead on the significance of a group-living individual's dominance rank in the social hierarchy. But using dominance rank to predict variables such as stress levels often proves unsatisfactory: dominance has been found to only weakly correlate with variables such as baseline hormone levels. In this project the researcher will consider the role of personality or behavioral style as an additional variable that explains differences between nonhuman primate individuals. Specifically, behavioral and physiological data from captive, peer-housed groups of young chimpanzees at the University of Southwest Louisiana Research Center in New Iberia, Louisiana will be collected. Individuals of similar rank with respect to variables that define behavioral styles will then be compared. For example, how good is individual X at picking fights that he/she can win? How adept is individual Y at forming valuable friendships? It is expected that these variables may not perfectly correlate with rank; a low-ranking individual may actually be quite good at picking winnable fights, for example. Individuals with different behavioral styles will be compared for urinary and serum hormone levels in order to assess the relative effects of dominance rank and behavioral style on stress physiology, health, and growth. It is predicted that consideration of behavioral style will provide for a fuller understanding of the factors affecting intra-group relations and physiological parameters than dominance rank alone, and will broaden our approach to primate socioecology.

许多心理学家研究了人格在调解人类如何接近生活中的有影响力的作用。 物理人类学家和原始学家在非人类灵长类动物中基本上忽略了这一变量，而是专注于团体生活个人在社会等级中的重要性。 但是，使用优势等级来预测应力水平等变量通常证明不令人满意：发现优势仅与基线激素水平等变量弱相关。 在这个项目中，研究人员将将个性或行为风格的作用视为解释非人类灵长类动物个体之间差异的附加变量。 具体而言，将收集来自路易斯安那州新伊比利亚西南路易斯安那大学研究中心的圈养，同龄人的年轻黑猩猩的行为和生理数据。 然后将比较有关定义行为方式的变量的相似等级的个体。 例如，个体X在接他/她可以获胜的战斗中的表现如何？ 个人在建立宝贵的友谊方面有多熟练？ 预计这些变量可能与等级不完全相关。例如，一个低级的人实际上可能非常擅长挑选可获奖的战斗。 将比较具有不同行为风格的个体的尿和血清激素水平，以评估优势等级和行为方式对压力生理，健康和生长的相对影响。 据预测，对行为方式的考虑将使人们对影响群体内关系和生理参数的因素比单独的优势等级有更多的了解，并将扩大我们对灵长类动物社会生态学的方法。