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
- Conor Smith
- Jolene Van Der Mescht
- Linnea Lyckberg
- Qian Ma
- Roxanne Hawkins (PhD Clinical Psychology, School of Health in Social Science)
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