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
I am a comparative psychologist. As an undergraduate and a masters student I studied dishabituation in sea anemones and taste aversion in leopard sharks, respectively. I intended to study learning in invertebrates for my PhD, but found myself studying personality in chimpanzees instead. Since then my research has focused on the study of individual differences in personality, well-being, and intelligence in nonhuman primates, humans, and other animals (e.g., deer, dolphins, and dogs). I remain interested in animal learning, 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
- From Psychometric Tests of Primate Personality to Models for Adaptive Personality Differences to
- Can Being Neurotic Be a Good Thing?
- Rethinking Neuroticism and Human Health
- Kyoto University Wildlife Research Center to
- Personality variation in wild male chimpanzees is maintained by its changing association with rank
Project activity
-
Personality traits, rank attainment, and siring success throughout the lives of male chimpanzees of Gombe National Park
In:
PeerJ, vol. 11
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15083
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Nonhuman Primate Welfare: From History, Science, and Ethics to Practice
(671 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82708-3
Research output: › Book (Published) -
Primate personality and welfare
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82708-3_17
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
Dominance in human (Homo sapiens) personality space and in hominoid phylogeny
In:
Journal of Comparative Psychology, vol. 136, pp. 236-254
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/com0000322
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Correlates of individual participation in boundary patrols by male chimpanzees
In:
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 377
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0151
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Obituary James E. King (1937-2021)
(2 pages)
In:
American Journal of Primatology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.23352
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Comment/debate (E-pub ahead of print) -
Marvel cinematic universe introductions
In:
Journal of Methods and Measurement in the Social Sciences, vol. 12, pp. 52-55
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2458/jmmss.3066
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Comment/debate (Published) -
Early social rearing, the V1A arginine vasopressin receptor genotype, and autistic traits in chimpanzees
In:
Autism Research, vol. 14, pp. 1843-1853
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2550
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Personality, subjective well-being, and the serotonin 1a receptor gene in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus)
In:
PLoS ONE
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238663
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Personality in animals: What can we learn from a species-comparative approach
(17 pages)
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published)