Chimpanzees: The Generality Of The Five-Factor Model

Learning by observation is a type of learning in which an individual observes the behavior of others, sees the consequences of the behaviors, and then attempts to carry out the same behavior. Social learning is based on the standards of classical and operant conditioning and observational learning. It is a commonly shared belief that people have an instinctive ability to imitate the behavior of others. However, this ability is not unique to humans. Animals have also showed evidence of being able to mimic humans and other animals (Mazur, 2013). Chimpanzees, or Pan Troglodytes, have demonstrated social learning through many different experiments in different settings. Chimpanzees have shown the ability to observe the behavior of a model and reproduce the behavior. However, chimpanzees have also demonstrated the mental capacity of understanding when behaviors do not elicit a desired reaction and not repeating these behaviors under these circumstances. This paper will focus on chimpanzees and their ability to learn new behaviors through social learning.

Guilford (1959) defines personality traits as being ‘any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual varies from another’. Subsequently, trait theory can be identified as an approach to the study of human personality. The aim of psychologists, specifically trait theorists, is to explain similarities and differences between individuals based on traits. Although numerous psychologists differ on the amount of traits that are significant, each theorist categorizes personality traits along several broad type spectrums. This assignment will focus on comparing and contrasting Eysenck’s Hierarchical Theory of Personality and Costa and McRae’s Five Factor Model (FFM), two different trait theories of personality.

The five-factor model (FFM) is a contemporary construct describing personality. It incorporates five traits – openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism also referred to as OCEAN. Within each dimension, there are specific personality attributes, for example, openness includes subcategories of feelings and actions. The FFM was influenced by Cattell’s 16-factor model (1957) and shares traits with many other personality theories such as Eysenck’s PEN model. There has been an ongoing debate discussing how many factors appropriately represent the brain structure of personality, suggestions have varied from 2-7, recently Almagor et al. (1995) advocated that a 7-factor model unfolds when evaluative traits are involved. Costa & Mcrae (1992) claim that the FFM is the best theory of personality, however, the model has received much criticism. Through examining different aspects of the model its credibility can be explored.

The term “ape” has been associated with imitation based on the behavioral research carried out on apes that has shown that apes are good imitators. Many primatologists who are against animal culture have argued that the learning of behaviors by apes is not a form of social transmission but rather simple imitation. De Waal seems to refute the scientific meaning of imitation which is defined by goals, rewards and punishments. I think de Waal makes a compelling argument for the complexity of imitations. He proposes three criteria for one to imitate which include; identification, understanding the goal and having background knowledge on the task. Imitations contain learning aspects within them. If they did not, human beings for example would be able to do any physical activity that they wanted to, which is not the case.

The article “Kinship and Social Bonds in Female Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)” is a research article in which was written based off of studies of many social mammals. There is a lot of research that has been conducted on female mammals that live in groups, which makes it reasonable to believe that kinship is something that influences the growth and continuation of social bonds. The objective of this study was to prove if kinship has an influence on social bonding for female chimpanzees that live in groups. The idea of this is to conclude if female chimpanzees develop sturdy communal relations with unrelated mammals of the equivalent gender. To do this the study observes multiple different characteristics of female chimpanzees from the same area. Observations were conducted on both physical and behavioral aspects of the chimps. The population that the investigators intend to refer their findings to is the Ngogo community of chimpanzees living in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Previous studies of males from the same group allowed the study to compare females to males that expressed powerful social ties amongst other members.

Nonhuman primates are social and affiliative animals and strong social bonds are fundamental to their lives. The same can be said for humankind. About five million years ago, chimps and humans were part of the same homididite family. Today, humans are still classified as primates. Humans share many behaviors that are similar to that of their nonhuman primate relatives. The two are very closely related and share so much DNA, over 98%. Since they are so closely related, it is a valid idea that nonhuman primates may be living in a similar way today to that of our ancestors of the past. The diets and habitats of nonhuman primates are similar to those of human predecessors. Humans and nonhuman

Research also shows indicates that the Big Five has distinct biological substrates thereby linking trait perspective with the biological perspective (DeYoung, Quilty & Peterson, 2007). However this convergence of perspectives is actually productive in that all perspectives by themselves have their disadvantages as well as their advantages. If all perspectives can coincide with one another, explanations of personality will become so much easier.

I have really enjoyed learning in this class and glad I took it because I found it to be very interesting. From learning all these different types of primates, from non-human to human primates, to even developing a better understanding of the evolution of primates and primate behavior. For my final paper, I will be going over and portraying the behavior of non-human primate and human primate. I will be comparing the primates behavior seen over the movies and literatures that we were assigned, to the understandings of evolution. Being able to learn and compare the behavior of non-human primate and the behavior of human primate, it can help further one understandings of how we are similar in physical and biological structures. According to the Wikipedia, “The primate lineage is thought to go back at least 65 million years ago”. (Wikipedia) With this one could say that the evolution of primates have been evolving for quite a while now, and even if we do not look like a non human primate we are similar than we think. The reading materials and the movies we had to watch for this class displayed the behaviors of non-human primate and human primate, some how differed. There are many question about evolution, and to how we were created? are there other reasons deeper than evolution? How much can we learn about evolution by just comparing the different behavior of the primates?

Have you ever noticed that we love to observe primates? You may not realize it, but it is because we know how closely related we are to them. By observing and studying contemporary primate behavior we are able to better understand our own evolution as hominins. Studying primate behavior, especially locomotion and cooperation, has allowed us to discover the evolution of behaviors to where we are now. Locomotion and cooperation are two main behaviors that define hominins and the evolution of humans overall.

Primates share many human-like factors, and over time, studies are able to now show that non-human primates have become even more like humans in terms of culture and lifestyle. Primates are intelligent, which allows parents of mammals to teach their young, and the young learn much like humans do. From detailed studies of ape behavior, it is concluded that apes, like humans, use tools and patterns to adapt from what they learn in social groups, rather than it being biological. Primates have been found to laugh, support each other, learn how to medicate themselves and others when in need, have family traditions, show off, grieve, and the list goes on. Learning such things, whether it be human or ape, varies from culture to culture, through social

The orangutans differ in hand size, Herald had much larger hands than my own and Taylor’s hand size was around the same size as mine. Their hands display the thickness of the fingers and knuckles, which is more likely explained by their fist walking attributes.

inspection can be analyzed and broken down. Personality, when broken down, is really just a

Primates are the mostly seen as adapted to the life in the forests full of trees, their behavioral and anatomical characteristics are very unique and found usually among the mammals. Basically the anthropologists have defined primates on the basis of three characteristics which includes behavioral, adaptive and evolutionary. The ability to live in the trees puts them in the list of arboreal adaptation, they mostly climb in the trees with the help of their body structure which involves limbs and the trunk. Most primates have opposable qualities like opposable thumb and big toes. One of the greatest characteristic found in them is that they have a stronger sense of touch through which they observe and examine different objects and even the food items. They also

Evolution distinguishingly changed how humans live and primates and survived according to their environments. For this reason, in lab three we are analyzing the relationships between Tooth Shape, Diet Quality, and Daily Travel Distance in humans and primates. These aspects respectively related to one another in humans, other primates, and fossil hominins. In humans, our tooth shape replicates how we eat in our diet quality. Most people today eat meat, which sculpts our molars to be much smaller as compared to other primates. Also, our daily travel distance marks our diet quality score. The longer the travel distance, the higher the diet quality score will be to have enough calories for our travels. As for fossil hominins, their diet quality

Three experiments were conducted to illustrate that Chimpanzees could discriminate between appearance and reality. Chimpanzees were the chosen subjects because they are our closest relatives, and there is evidence that chimpanzees can check their appearances and recognize themselves in mirrors.