Alexander Weiss

Senior Lecturer

Psychology
School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

Tel: 0131 650 3456
Email: alex.weiss@ed.ac.uk

Street: Room B18, Psychology Building
City: 7 George Square, Edinburgh
Post code: EH8 9JZ

Mondays and Tuesdays from 14:00-15:00

Biography

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

Teaching & PhD supervision

Undergraduate teaching

Office Hours

My office hours are from 4-5 on Tuesday and Thursday.

Current PhD students supervised

Research

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