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61
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Introduction
Jana Uher, Associate Professor of Transdisciplinary Research (University of Greenwich), was a Marie Curie Senior Research Fellow (LSE), Research Group Director (FU Berlin), Researcher (MPI-EVAN Leipzig) and Visiting Scholar (ISTC-CNR Rome). Her research is transdisciplinary, integrating concepts and perspectives from psychology, biology, physics, metrology and social sciences and exploring philosophy-of-science issues of research on individuals reaching across human cultures and various species.
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Publications
Publications (61)
Various lines of critique of quantitative psychology, well-established and new, are used to trace along the field's typical steps of research a complex network of misconceptions and fallacies codified in psychological jargon. The article explores what constructs actually are, why they are needed in psychology, fallacies and challenges in construct...
Psychometrics has always been confronted with fundamental criticism, highlighting serious insufficiencies and fallacies. Many fallacies persist, however, because each critic explores only some fallacies while still building on others. This article scrutinizes the epistemological, metatheoretical, and methodological foundations of psychometrics, rev...
Open access: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-021-01215-6 _____
Quantitative data are generated differently. To justify inferences about real-world phenomena and establish secured knowledge bases, however, quantitative data generation must follow transparent principles applied consistently across sciences. Metrological frameworks of physical measure...
This article explores in-depth the metatheoretical and methodological foundations on which rating scales—by their very conception, design and application—are built and traces their historical origins. It brings together independent lines of critique from different scholars and disciplines to map out the problem landscape, which centres on the faile...
Quantitative explorations of behaviour, psyche and society are common in psychology. This requires methods that justify the attribution of results to the measurands (the entities to be measured, e.g., in individuals) and that make the results' quantitative meaning publicly interpretable (e.g., for decision making). Do rating scales—psychology's pri...
Constructs are central to psychology. And yet, relevance and
role of constructs for psychological theories, findings and
practices are still debated and even questioned. What actually are constructs? Why are they so central to psychology?
What is their explanatory value? (How) can we ‘measure’
constructs? And why are there so many misunderstandings...
Given persistent problems (e.g., replicability), psychological research is increasingly scrutinised. Arocha (2021) critically analyses epistemological problems of positivism and the common population-level statistics, which follow Galtonian instead of Wundtian nomothetic methodologies and therefore cannot explore individual-level structures and pro...
Psychology holds an exceptional position among the sciences. Yet even after 140 years as an independent discipline, psychology is still struggling with its most basic foundations. Its key phenomena, mind and behaviour, are poorly defined (and their definition instead often delegated to neuroscience or philosophy) while specific terms and constructs...
Measurement creates trustworthy quantifications. But unified frameworks applicable to all sciences are still lacking and discipline-specific terms, concepts and practices hamper mutual understanding and identification of commonalities and differences. Transdisciplinary and philosophy-of-science analyses are used to compare metrologists’ structural...
Exploring human uniqueness encounters fundamental challenges because we can approach this endeavour only from within our uniquely human perspective. The intrinsic presumptions that this involves may entail two types of anthropocentric, ethnocentric, and egocentric biases, which can influence research on both epistemological and methodological level...
Data generation methods differ across the empirical sciences. Today’s physicists and engineers primarily generate data with automated technologies. Behavioural, psychological and social scientists explore phenomena that are not technically accessible (e.g., attitudes, social beliefs) or only in limited ways (e.g., behaviours) and therefore generate...
Rating scales are popular methods for generating quantitative data directly by persons rather than automated technologies. But scholars increasingly challenge their foundations. This article contributes epistemological and methodological analyses of the processes involved in person-generated quantification. They are crucial for measurement because...
The Transdisciplinary Philosophy-of-Science Paradigm for Research on Individuals (TPS-Paradigm) builds on established concepts, approaches, and methods from various disciplines that are systematically integrated into coherent philosophical, metatheoretical, and methodological frameworks and that are further developed and complemented by novel ones....
Throughout the last 2500 years, the classification of individual differences in healthy people and their extreme expressions in mental disorders has remained one of the most difficult challenges in science that affects our ability to explore individuals' functioning, underlying psychobiological processes and pathways of development. To facilitate a...
This Editorial highlights a unique focus of this theme issue on the biological perspectives in deriving psychological taxonomies coming from neurochemistry, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, genetics, psychiatry, developmental and comparative psychology—as contrasted to more common discussions of socio-cultural concepts (personality) and methods (lexi...
OPEN ACCESS: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0171 __ available at publisher __
Models and constructs of individual differences are numerous and diverse. But detecting commonalities, differences and interrelations is hindered by the common abstract terms (e.g. ‘personality’, ‘temperament’, ‘traits’) that do not reveal the particular phenomena deno...
This Editorial highlights a unique focus of this theme issue on the biological perspectives in deriving psychological taxonomies coming from neurochemistry, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, genetics, psychiatry, developmental and comparative psychology—as contrasted to more common discussions of socio-cultural concepts (personality) and methods (lexi...
Personality psychology is fragmented across heterogeneous subfields each focussing on particular aspects of individuals and from particular paradigmatic perspectives. Attempts for integration into overarching theories as that presented in the target article are therefore important. But the ideas proposed build on vague and often circular definition...
Description CPI - Capuchin Personality Inventory The CPI is a standardised tool for assessments of captive capuchin monkey individuals. It consists of 21 trait-adjective items and 34 behaviour-descriptive verb items. Assessments are indicated on a five-point frequency scale. Theoretical and methodological background All our personality inventories...
Description CPI - Capuchin Personality Inventory The CPI is a standardised tool for assessments of captive capuchin monkey individuals. It consists of 21 trait-adjective items and 34 behaviour-descriptive verb items. Assessments are indicated on a five-point frequency scale. Theoretical and methodological background All our personality inventories...
Personality assessments and observations were contrasted by applying a philosophy-of-science paradigm and a study of 49 human raters and 150 capuchin monkeys. Twenty constructs were operationalised with 146 behavioural measurements in 17 situations to study capuchins’ individual-specific behaviours and with assessments on trait-adjective and behavi...
Behaviour is central to many fields, but metatheoretical definitions specifying the most basic assumptions about what is considered behaviour and what is not are largely lacking. This transdisciplinary research explores the challenges in defining behaviour, highlighting anthropocentric biases and a frequent lack of differentiation from physiologica...
Perceiving physical stimuli such as light is not the same as perceiving one's own thoughts and feelings. Introspective findings on the psychophysical laws of stimulus perception therefore cannot prove that all mental life is quantifiable as psychologists have long assumed.
There is hardly anything that is as central to anyone’s life as “personality”, which is unique and distinctive for every individual. But what is it that we call “personality”? And why are there so many different definitions? These questions were explored by Jana Uher. In a comprehensive trilogy of research papers, she has investigated the meta-theo...
In every research discipline, there are various schools of thought that rely on different basic assumptions and different theories and methods — thus, on different paradigms. But the basic assumptions underlying a given paradigm are not always made explicit. This complicates collaborations between scientists from different traditions and discipline...
It has been long known that a comprehensive understanding of individuals requires the joint expertise of multiple disciplines. But theories and methods from different disciplines cannot be easily combined, and the findings often cannot be directly compared. Therefore, Jana Uher has explored the “theories behind the theories and methods” – the metat...
In capuchin monkeys, as in many species, males are larger than females. Are males also more bold, more explorative and less anxious than females? Far from it. A new study revealed that capuchin monkeys show hardly any sex differences in their individual behaviours. These findings shed new light on an age-old question.
Misunderstandings in communication happen every day—and this also happens in the sciences. A new study explored the “theories behind the theories” on “personality” and individual differences and unravelled fundamental misunderstandings between biologists and psychologists. These misunderstandings not only hamper collaborative research across discip...
Great apes are human's closest living relatives. Their cognitive abilities have been investigated and compared to those of humans for a long time. But so far, researchers have largely ignored the pronounced individuality of great apes and have dismissed them as purely anthropomorphic ideas. At the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology...
The ability to quickly form impressions of other individuals’ “personality” seems to be a uniquely human ability. A 3-year cross-species study of 104 crab-eating macaques and 99 human observers of these monkeys further explored this fascinating human ability. The study illuminated the ways in which judgements of individuals are influenced by belief...
"Personality" differences have already been demonstrated in the behaviour of many species. But how similar or distinct are the "personality" differences described for different species? In her new study, Jana Uher introduces a comprehensive research methodology for systematic cross-species comparisons. Their application in four monkey species from...
In their appearance, the sexes differ from one another in many animal species. Males are often bigger and physically stronger than females. But sex differences in body morphology need not go along with sex differences in behaviour as a recent study on monkeys showed. In each of four species, stable individual behavioural differences-thus, "personal...
Introspection is considered a key method for exploring the workings of the psyche because psychical phenomena are accessible only by the individual him- or herself. But this epistemological concept, despite its importance, remained unclear and contentious. Its scientificity is often questioned, but still introspective findings from psychophysics ar...
Individuals are explored in various kinds of phenomena and contexts. But how can scientists compare individual variations across phenomena with heterogeneous properties that require different methods for their exploration? How can measurements of individual variations be made directly comparable between different studies, groups of individuals or e...
A science of the individual encounters the unparalleled challenges of exploring the unique phenomena of the psyche and their workings. This article applies the Transdisciplinary Philosophy-of-Science Paradigm for Research on Individuals (TPS-Paradigm) to specify these challenges. Considering three metatheoretical properties—1) location in relation...
The growing interest in "personality" from scientists of ever more diverse fields demands conceptual integrations-and reveals fundamental challenges. For what is "personality" given that "it" is explored in humans and nonhuman species, that people encode "it" in their everyday language, scientists seek "it" in the brain and study "it" primarily wit...
As science seeks to make generalisations, a science of individual peculiarities encounters intricate challenges. This article explores these challenges by applying the Transdisciplinary Philosophy-of-Science Paradigm for Research on Individuals (TPS-Paradigm) and by exploring taxonomic "personality" research as an example. Analyses of researchers'...
Scientists exploring individuals, as such scientists are individuals themselves and thus not independent from their objects of research, encounter profound challenges; in particular, high risks for anthropo-, ethno- and ego-centric biases and various fallacies in reasoning. The Transdisciplinary Philosophy-of-Science Paradigm for Research on Indivi...
Taxonomic "personality" models are widely used in research and applied fields. This article applies the Transdisciplinary Philosophy-of-Science Paradigm for Research on Individuals (TPS-Paradigm) to scrutinise the three methodological steps that are required for developing comprehensive "personality" taxonomies: 1) the approaches used to select the...
Socio-cognitive abilities to recognise and to represent individual-specificity-even in some nonhuman species-are central to human life. Using a novel philosophy-of-science paradigm, we explored these abilities over 3 years in 6 waves by investigating individual-specific behaviours of 104 crab-eating macaques (Macaca fascicularis) and the representa...
We applied a new framework for behavioural research on personality differences in 26 adult tufted capuchin monkeys. Using the Behavioural Repertoire x Environmental Situations Approach, we generated systematically 20 non-lexical emic personality constructs that have high ecological validity for this species. For construct operationalisation, we obt...
We applied a new framework for behavioural research on personality differences in 26 adult tufted capuchin monkeys. Using the Behavioural Repertoire x Environmental Situations Approach, we generated systematically 20 non-lexical emic personality constructs that have high ecological validity for this species. For construct operationalisation, we obt...
Three methods of personality assessment (behavior measures, behavior ratings, adjective ratings) were compared in 20 zoo-housed Great Apes: bonobos (Pan paniscus), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus), gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), and orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus abelii). To test a new bottom-up approach, the studied trait constructs were syste...
The MPIc is a standardised tool for assessments of captive macaque individuals. It consists of 18 trait-adjective items and 30 behaviour-descriptive verb items. Assessments are indicated on a five-point frequency scale. Theoretical and methodological background All our personality inventories were developed by applying the Behavioural Repertoire x...
The MPIc is a standardised tool for assessments of captive macaque individuals. It consists of 18 trait-adjective items and 30 behaviour-descriptive verb items. Assessments are indicated on a five-point frequency scale. Theoretical and methodological background All our personality inventories were developed by applying the Behavioural Repertoire x...
The MPIc is a standardised tool for assessments of captive macaque individuals. It consists of 18 trait-adjective items and 30 behaviour-descriptive verb items. Assessments are indicated on a five-point frequency scale. Theoretical and methodological background All our personality inventories were developed by applying the Behavioural Repertoire x...
The MPIc is a standardised tool for assessments of captive macaque individuals. It consists of 18 trait-adjective items and 30 behaviour-descriptive verb items. Assessments are indicated on a five-point frequency scale. Theoretical and methodological background All our personality inventories were developed by applying the Behavioural Repertoire x...
This article develops a comprehensive philosophy-of-science for personality psychology that goes far beyond the scope of the lexical approaches, assessment methods, and trait concepts that currently prevail. One of the field's most important guiding scientific assumptions, the lexical hypothesis, is analysed from meta-theoretical viewpoints to reve...
Animal 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 be...
Primate personality research encounters a number of puzzling methodological challenges. Individuals are unique and comparable
at the same time. They are characterized by relatively stable individual-specific behavioral patterns that often show only
moderate consistency across situations. Personality is assumed to be temporally stable, yet equally...
The GAPI is a standardised tool for assessments of captive Great Ape individuals (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans). It consists of 17 trait-adjective items and 34 behaviour-descriptive verb items. Assessments are indicated on a five-point agreement scale (Likert scale). Theoretical and methodological background All our personality inv...
The GAPI is a standardised tool for assessments of captive Great Ape individuals (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans). It consists of 17 trait-adjective items and 34 behaviour-descriptive verb items. Assessments are indicated on either a five-point agreement scale (Likert scale) or a five-point frequency scale. Theoretical and methodolog...
In the broadest sense, personality refers to stable inter-individual variability in behavioural organisation within a particular population. Researching personality in human as well as nonhuman species provides unique possibilities for comparisons across species with different phylogenies, ecologies and social systems. It also allows insights into...
Comparative personality research in human and nonhuman species advances many areas of empirical and theoretical research. The methodological foundations underlying these attempts to explain personality, however, remain an unpopular and often ignored topic. The target paper and this rejoinder explore three methodological core issues in the philosoph...
Using a multidisciplinary approach, the present study complements ethological behaviour measurements with basic theoretical concepts, methods and approaches of the personality psychological trait paradigm. Its adoptability and usefulness for animal studies are tested exemplarily on a sample of 20 zoo-housed great apes (five of each of the following...
We tested 6 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), 3 orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), 4 bonobos (Pan paniscus), and 2 gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) in the reversed reward contingency task. Individuals were presented with pairs of quantities ranging between 0 and 6 food items. Prior to testing, some experienced apes had solved this task using 2 quantities while ot...
S. T. Boysen and G. G. Berntson (1995) found that chimpanzees performed poorly on a reversed contingency task in which they had to point to the smaller of 2 food quantities to acquire the larger quantity. The authors compared the performance of 4 great ape species (Pan troglodytes, Pongo pygmaeus, Pan paniscus, and Gorilla gorilla) on the reversed...
