Temperament in nonhuman primates

Abstract

Formerly applied to studies of responsivity in children, in more recent years the concept of temperament has been applied to nonhuman primates at the individual, species, and now population levels. While the concepts of temperament and personality have been less distinguished in nonhuman primate studies than in the human literature, temperamental and personality differences have now been identified among individual primates and among primate species in a number of studies. At the individual level, certain temperamental characteristics have been associated with age, sex, and most frequently rank. At the species level, temperamental profiles have been linked to intraspecific differences in social systems, sociodemographics, and features of life history and ecology. In this report we discuss the application of the temperament concept to nonhuman primates and review findings from studies of primate temperament at the individual, population, and species level. We also cite evidence for genetic and experiential influences on temperament in primates, outline concepts related to possible evolutionary influences on temperament, and discuss the possible relation of temperamental characteristics to social behavior and ecology in selected species. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.