Alexander Weiss
Senior Lecturer
- Psychology
- School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences
Contact details
- Tel: 0131 650 3456
- Email: alex.weiss@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
-
Room B18, Psychology Building
- City
- 7 George Square, Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9JZ
Availability
Mondays and Tuesdays from 14:00-15:00
Background
Broadly speaking I am a comparative psychologist. To be more specific, as an undergraduate and a masters student I studied habituation and dishabituation in sea anemones and taste aversion in leopard sharks. I originally intended to study learning in invertebrates for my PhD, but found myself studying personality in chimpanzees instead. Since then I have devoted my research career to the study of individual differences in personality, well-being, and intelligence in nonhuman primates and sometimes humans and other animals, too. I still remain interested in the study of animal learning and preparedness nor for classical ethology and behavioral ecology.
More about me
Curriculum vitae
Google Scholar profile
Open access publications
Altschul, D. M., Hopkins, W. D., Herrelko, E. S., Inoue-Murayama, M., Matsuzawa, T., King, J. E., . . . Weiss, A. (2018). Personality links with lifespan in chimpanzees. eLife, 7, e33781. doi:10.7554/eLife.33781
Inoue-Murayama, M., Yokoyama, C., Yamanashi, Y., & Weiss, A. (2018). Common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) personality, subjective well-being, hair cortisol level, and AVPR1a, OPRM1, and DAT genotypes. Scientific Reports, 8, 10255. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-28112-7
Weiss, A., Wilson, M. L., Collins, D. A., Mjungu, D., Kamenya, S., Foerster, S., & Pusey, A. E. (2017). Personality in the chimpanzees of Gombe National Park. Scientific Data, 4, 170146. doi:10.1038/sdata.2017.146
Altschul, D. M., Wallace, E., Sonnweber, R.-S., Tomonaga, M., & Weiss, A. (2017). Chimpanzee intellect: Personality, performance, and motivation with touchscreen tasks. Royal Society Open Science, 4, 170169. doi:10.1098/rsos.170169
Deary, I. J., Weiss, A., & Batty, G. D. (2010). Intelligence and personality as predictors of illness and death: How researchers in differential psychology and chronic disease epidemiology Are collaborating to understand and address health inequalities. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 11, 53-79.
Books
J. Vonk, A. Weiss, & S. A. Kuczaj (Eds.) (2017). Personality in Nonhuman Animals. Springer.
M. Inoue-Murayama, S. Kawamura, & A. Weiss (Eds.) (2011). From Genes to Animal Behavior: Social Structures, Personalities, Communication by Color. Springer.
Weiss, Alexander; King, James E.; Murray, Lindsay (Eds.) (2011). Personality and Temperament in Nonhuman Primates Springer.
Qualifications
BA in Psychology (1993), California State University, Los Angeles
MA in Comparative Psychology (1996), California State University, Long Beach
PhD in Psychology (2002), University of Arizona
Post-doctoral IRTA (2002-2005), National Institute on Aging
Undergraduate teaching
Office Hours
My office hours are from 4-5 on Tuesday and Thursday.
Current PhD students supervised
Research summary
Personality and subjective well-being in humans, nonhuman primates, and other animals; the evolution of personality and subjective well-being; aging and development; behavior genetics; differential epidemiology; quantitative methods
Research activities
Project activity
-
Comparative assessment of behaviorally derived personality structures in golden handed tamarins (Saguinus midas), cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus), and common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus)
In:
Journal of Comparative Psychology
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Accepted/In press) -
Facial width-to-height ratio in chimpanzees: Links to age, sex and personality
In:
Evolution and Human Behavior
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2020.03.001
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
A new look at neuroticism: Should we worry so much about worrying?
In:
Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol. 29, pp. 92-101
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419887184
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
The MMPI Factor Scales and risk of death in men during 45 years of follow-up: The Western Electric Study
In:
Psychology and Aging, vol. 35, pp. 97-111
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000421
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Facial width-to-height ratio is associated with agonistic and affiliative dominance in bonobos (Pan paniscus)
In:
Biology letters, vol. 15
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0232
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Personality in animals: What can we learn from a species-comparative approach
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Accepted/In press) -
Subjective well-being and its relationship to personality in animals
Research output: › Chapter (Accepted/In press) -
Genetic contributions to two special factors of neuroticism are associated with affluence, higher intelligence, better health
In:
Molecular Psychiatry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-019-0387-3
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Developing individual differences in primate behavior: The role of genes, environment and their interplay
In:
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, vol. 73
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-019-2633-8
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Conditioning on a collider may or may not explain the relationship between lower neuroticism and premature mortality in Gale et al. (2017): A reply to Richardson, Davey Smith, and Munafó (2018)
In:
Psychological Science, vol. 30, pp. 633-638
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619833325
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)