Chaired Symposia
- First-person video records for evidence-based explorations of psychical and behavioural processes in the lab and the real-world, ICPS Convention, Vienna, March 2017
- Cross-cultural and cross-species studies on the development of social behaviour and communication, DGPs-Congress, Bielefeld, Sep 2012
- Multidimensionality in animal individual differences research, ECP16, Trieste, Jul 2012
- The study of individual differences in animals – recent developments, ISSID 2011 Conference, London, Jul 2011
- Vergleichende Psychologie - Neue Implikationen für die Humanforschung/ Comparative Psychology - New implications for research on humans, 47. DGPs-Kongress, Bremen, Sep 2010
- How to study personality differences in nonhuman primates, IPS XXIII. Congress, Tokyo, Sep 2010
- Cross-species Perspectives on Differential and Personality Research, ECP15, Brno, Jul 2010
- Multidisciplinary Advances in Animal Personality Research, ECP 14, Tartu, Jul 2008
Symposium 2017
First-person video records for evidence-based explorations of psychical and behavioural processes in the lab and the real-worldSymposium at the II. Biennial International Convention
of Psychological Science (ICPS), Vienna, Austria, 23-25 March 2017 The exploration of complex psychical processes imposes
fundamental challenges for psychological research methodology. Kant
and Wundt already had recognised that higher psychical processes
are inaccessible by introspective methods because attention and
enquiry inevitably disturb and alter the processes under study.
This symposium presents an innovative research methodology, Subjective
Evidence-Based Ethnography (SEBE), that is based on activity theory
and first-person perspective video recordings to overcome the fundamental
limitations of introspection and to enable evidence-based and in-depth
analyses of psychical and behavioural processes in real-life situations.
The first talk introduces the theoretical and methodological background
of SEBE and presents the video-based technologies applied using
examples from medicine and cooking. The second talk demonstrates
applications in research on complex decision making processes in
policing and on the transfer of expert knowledge in industry. The
third talk shows how the SEBE methodology can be used to study adolescents'
everyday usage of media technologies. The fourth and final talk
presents its application for exploring the psychical processes that
occur during the generation of personality assessments using standardised
questionnaires and summarises the advantages of this methodology. Speakers:
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Symposia 2012
Cross-cultural and cross-species studies on the development of social behaviour and communication / Kultur- und artvergleichende Untersuchungen zur Entwicklung von Sozialverhalten und KommunikationTask force at the 48th Congress of the German
Psychological Society (DGPs) In sozialen Systemen ist die Wechselwirkung zwischen genetischen, epigenetischen und soziokulturellen Faktoren besonders komplex. Mit neuen Ansätzen zum Kulturvergleich, zur Untersuchung von Verhaltensmustern im Lebensverlauf (Life histories) und zum Verständnis der neurobiologischen Grundlagen des Sozialverhaltens etabliert sich die vergleichende Untersuchung von Entwicklungsverläufen aktuell zu einem äußerst dynamischen und fruchtbaren Forschungsgebiet. In vergleichenden Studien können die Einzigartigkeit und Universalität individueller und normativer Entwicklungsverläufe und ihre Bedingungen umfassender erforscht werden als dies in monokulturellen, meist auf westliche Humanstichproben beschränkten psychologischen Studien möglich ist. Die methodische Fokussierung auf multiple verhaltensbasierte Methoden ist zudem für andere psychologische Teildisziplinen aufschlussreich, die sich erst in jüngerer Zeit wieder verstärkt der Messung von Verhalten zuwenden. In dieser Arbeitsgruppe werden Studien zum Sozialverhalten und zur Kommunikation vorgestellt, die paradigmatisch Felder beleuchten, in denen vergleichende Analysen derzeit ein besonders hohes heuristisches Potenzial haben. Dies sind kulturvergleichende Arbeiten zur Entwicklung frühkindlicher Bindungsbeziehungen, zur Entwicklung geteilter Aufmerksamkeit und zur gestischen Kommunikation, Arbeiten zur Rolle von Augensignalen für das soziale Lernen sowie artvergleichende Studien zur Veränderung von Sozialbeziehungen in Abhängigkeit von der Gruppenkomposition und zum Einfluss des sozialen Umfelds während der Adoleszenz auf das erwachsene Sozialverhalten. Speakers:
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Multidimensionality in animal individual differences researchSymposium at the 16th European Conference on Personality
(ECP 16) in Trieste, Italy, 10-14 July, 2012 In the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin recognized the importance for research on individual differences in animals' characteristics, and the past decade has seen a substantial amount of work, both theoretical and empirical, done in this area. With some exceptions, however, work has typically focused on single dimensions of temperament/ personality in various animal species. This is now changing, and our symposium highlights the latest research that has taken a multi-dimensional approach to the study of individual differences in animals. Species studied by our distinguished speakers include rats, deer, fish, and monkeys, and the perspectives represented include neurobiology, wildlife biology, genetics, animal behaviour, and comparative differential psychology. Studies of individual differences in nonhumans from a multi-dimensional approach highlight both similarities and differences with humans in terms of the structure of personality differences, the neurobiological and genetic underpinnings, the adaptive significance, and the domain specificity or generality of personality dimensions. The discussant addresses some of these larger issues. The multidimensional perspective in animal individual differences research represents a major theoretical and empirical advance, and the perspectives, methods, and experimental control that animal researchers bring to this issue are likely to provide new insights to similar phenomena in humans. Speakers:
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Symposium 2011
The study of individual differences in animals – recent developmentsSymposium at the ISSID 2011, the biannual conference
of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences,
in London, United Kingdom, 25-28 July, 2011 The study of individual differences in nonhuman animals is a rapidly growing field that made significant advances over the last decade. The symposium aims to highlight the potentials of comparative approaches that arise from the greater opportunities for naturalistic behaviour observation and experimental control in nonhuman species, from their more diverse neurological, behavioural, psychological, and social systems, and their greater variety in ecological adaptations and phylogenetic histories. Distinguished speakers from psychobiology, biology, and differential psychology provide an overview of recent developments. Molecular-genetic studies unravel how gene-environment interactions shape individual differences in the bio-behavioral development of monkeys. Longitudinal studies in wild birds explore patterns and mechanisms of the ontogenetic development and plasticity of personality differences in the context of their potential adaptivity and evolutionary function. The theoretical and practical consequences of individual differences in pigs and dogs, and methodological difficulties of their assessment in animal management are discussed with a special focus on their relevance for animal welfare. The peculiarities of comparative research, especially the diversity among nonhuman species and their lack of self-reports necessitate the development of new meta-theoretical and methodological approaches that also help to critically re-evaluate and extend traditional research approaches to individual differences in humans. Speakers:
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Symposia 2010
Vergleichende Psychologie - Neue Implikationen für die HumanforschungSymposium at the 47. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft
für Psychologie (DGPs) in Bremen, Germany, 26-30 September, 2010 Die Vergleichende Psychologie befasst sich mit den Übereinstimmungen und Verschiedenheiten im Verhalten von Menschen und Tieren. Durch die enorme Diversität nichtmenschlicher Spezies können dabei weitreichende Erkenntnisse in verschiedensten Forschungsgebieten gewonnen werden, z.B. in der kognitions-, kommunikations-, evolutions-, entwicklungs- und neuropsychologischen Forschung. Mit den berühmten Schimpansenstudien Wolfgang Köhlers in der Forschungsstation der Preußischen Wissenschaftsakademie hat die Vergleichende Psychologie starke Wurzeln auch im deutschsprachigen Forschungsgebiet. Doch ungeachtet dessen und trotz bedeutender internationaler Entwicklungen im letzten Jahrzehnt konnte sich die Vergleichende Psychologie bisher (noch) nicht in der deutschsprachigen Psychologie etablieren, wie u.a. im Fehlen einer DGPs-Fachgruppe deutlich wird. Aber auch hier gibt es international renommierte Forschung, von der wir in diesem Symposium einige bedeutende Forschungslinien vorstellen möchten, um die vielfältigen Anknüpfungspunkte mit der Humanforschung aufzuzeigen. Nach einer kurzen Einleitung stellen wir in fünf Beiträgen erstaunliche Forschungsergebnisse zur vergleichenden Kognitionsforschung bei nichtmenschlichen Primaten, Vögeln und verschiedenen menschlichen Kulturen sowie zur vokalen und taktil-visuellen Kommunikationsforschung vor, die tiefgreifende Erkenntnisse zur Evolution der kognitiven und sprachlichen Fähigkeiten des Menschen ermöglichen. Speakers:
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How to study personality differences in nonhuman primatesSymposium at the XXIII Congress of the International
Primatological Society IPS) in Kyoto, Japan, 12-18 September, 2010 Individual differences that are commonly construed as personality differences are increasingly studied in prosimians, old and new world monkeys, and apes. Primatologists thereby focus on the psychobiological mechanisms, ontogenetic processes, adaptive advantages, and phylogenetic origins of individual differences within and between species. Yet meta-theoretical and methodological foundations of their primary empirical investigation are still not well established. What do we understand by personality differences at all? What methods are suitable to study them empirically in nonhuman primates? And how can personality differences be analyzed statistically? This symposium provides an overview about basic meta-theoretical concepts of personality, and different methodological approaches and methods of measurement. Participants present a meta-analysis of methods of personality measurement used in primate studies. Ethological quantifications of personality differences are demonstrated in zoo populations of chimpanzees. The utility of observer ratings and their power to explain patterns of friendship are shown in captive rhesus macaques. A longitudinal study in zoo populations of gorillas demonstrates the utility of observer ratings of personality differences for captive management. Particularly illuminating, yet also methodologically challenging are personality studies on wild populations. A study in Japanese macaques demonstrates some of these challenges and discusses interesting opportunities to validate personality differences with life-history traits. We close with a presentation of factor analytic methods to statistically identify basic dimensions of individual differences in empirical data. Speakers:
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Cross-species Perspectives on Differential and Personality ResearchInvited Symposium at the 15th European Conference
on Personality (ECP 15) in Brno, Czech Republic, 20-24 July, 2010 Differential and personality research in nonhuman species is a rapidly growing field that made significant advances over the last decade-largely unnoticed by psychologists, however. The symposium aims to highlight the potentials of cross-species perspectives that arise from the greater opportunities for naturalistic behaviour observation and experimental control in nonhuman species, from their more diverse neurological, behavioural, psychological, and social systems, and their greater variety in ecological adaptations and phylogenetic histories. Distinguished speakers present their work on a 40-year breeding experiment for single behavioural traits in farm foxes, factorial analyses of temperamental differences in mice studied in behavioural tests, ambulatory monitoring of individual differences in physiological and hormonal responses to different situations in geese, the utility of behavioural test and trait ratings as breeding selection tools in dogs, evolutionary patterns in primate personality differences, and meta-theoretical and methodological approaches to species-comprehensive differential and personality research. These studies illustrate the potential of comparative approaches for systematic explorations of psychobiological mechanisms and evolutionary principles that contribute to personality differences in human and nonhuman species. The particularities of nonhuman species also necessitate new meta-theoretical and methodological developments that can help to critically re-evaluate and extend research approaches of traditional differential and personality psychology. Speakers:
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Symposium 2008 Multidisciplinary Advances in Animal Personality ResearchInvited Symposium at the 14th European Conference
on Personality (ECP 14) in Tartu, Estonia, July 16-20th, 2008 Personality research in nonhuman species has made significant advances over the last decade. Diverse disciplines are exploiting the unique possibilities of comparative personality research to gain profound insights into the nature and origins of personality. Greater opportunities for naturalistic behavioural observations and experimental control, mostly shorter reproduction cycles and life spans, and differences in phylogenies, ecologies and social systems predistine nonhuman species for systematic studies on the evolutionary, genetic, biological and social bases of personality. Distinguished speakers from different disciplines present recent advances made in the field that reveal multi-faceted and complex perspectives on personality. Fundamental genetic, ontogenetic and evolutionary principles underlying stable intraspecies behavioural variation are discussed within integrative frameworks. Processes mediating interactions between genetic and environmental factors that account for developmental plasticity are shown in avian and mammalian species. Personality- and relationship-dependent optima of stimulation and arousal modulation are important components of social compatibility in chimpanzees that also affect their psycho-social health. Relations between personality differences and performance in explosive detection dogs indicate applied aspects of nonhuman personality research. The diversity of behavioural variation within and across species requires suitable methodologies to identify and study trait dimensions of individual and species differences; their reliability and validity is demonstrated empirically in great apes and macaques. The empirical, theoretical and methodological advances made in nonhuman personality research have also interesting implications for human personality research. Integrating approaches and findings across research disciplines and species can stimulate critical reconsideration of theories, concepts and methodologies and open up new perspectives on personality. Speakers:
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