Alexander Weiss

Honorary Professor

  • Psychology
  • School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

Contact details

Biography

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

L. M. Robinson & A. Weiss (Eds.) 2022. Nonhuman Primate Welfare From History, Science, and Ethics to Practice. Springer.

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

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

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