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节人类如何对待生活方面的影响作用。 体质人类学家和灵长类动物学家在很大程度上忽略了非人类灵长类动物中的这个变量，而是专注于群体生活个体在社会等级中的统治地位的重要性。 但是，使用优势等级来预测压力水平等变量往往不能令人满意：优势与基线激素水平等变量的相关性很弱。 在这个项目中，研究人员将考虑人格或行为方式的作用作为解释非人类灵长类动物个体之间差异的额外变量。 具体来说，将收集路易斯安那州新伊比利亚西南路易斯安那大学研究中心圈养的同龄黑猩猩群体的行为和生理数据。 然后将比较在定义行为风格的变量方面排名相似的个体。 例如，个人X在选择他/她能赢的战斗方面有多好？ 个人Y在建立有价值的友谊方面有多熟练？ 人们认为，这些变量可能与等级并不完全相关;例如，一个等级低的个体实际上可能非常擅长挑选可以获胜的战斗。 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风格对应激生理、健康和生长的相对影响。 据预测，行为风格的考虑将提供一个更全面的了解的因素影响组内关系和生理参数比优势排名单独，并将扩大我们的方法灵长类动物的社会生态学。