Franks Becca, Reiss Diana, Cole Patricia, Friedrich Volney, Thompson Nicole, Higgins E Tory
Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA.
Zoo Biol. 2013 Jul-Aug;32(4):427-35. doi: 10.1002/zoo.21075. Epub 2013 May 6.
Evidence is mounting that personality is associated with health and well-being in humans and other animals. In a step towards increasing our understanding of this link, we applied regulatory focus theory, a motivational perspective from social psychology, to the behavior of zoo-housed cotton top tamarins. We tested whether regulatory focus "personality," that is stable differences in whether an individual is motivated by gains versus safety, would 1) produce individual differences in behavior and 2) predict how individuals interact with enrichment. First, we characterized individuals with respect to several key behaviors: eating in the open, hiding, and time spent near the front of the exhibit. The monkeys were consistent in their behavioral tendencies across the 6-month study, allowing regulatory focus classification. One monkey showed evidence of being a promotion-individual, that is, more motivated by gains than safety. One monkey showed evidence of being a prevention-individual, that is, more motivated by safety than gains. The other monkeys were stable in their behavior and showed evidence of being intermediate-individuals, that is, they favored neither gains nor safety. Using these characterizations, we predicted distinct patterns of individual-object interactions with enrichment. For example, we predicted that a promotion-individual (favoring gains over safety) would approach potential gains faster than a prevention-individual (favoring safety over gains). Counter-intuitively, however, we also predicted that a promotion-individual would approach non-gains slower than a prevention-individual concerned with safety. We found support for our predictions, which suggests that regulatory focus theory could be a useful tool for understanding how and why individuals interact with environmental enrichment.
越来越多的证据表明，个性与人类和其他动物的健康及幸福相关。为了进一步加深我们对这种联系的理解，我们将调节焦点理论（一种来自社会心理学的动机视角）应用于圈养的棉顶狨猴的行为研究。我们测试了调节焦点“个性”，即个体在受收益驱动还是受安全驱动方面的稳定差异，是否会1）导致行为上的个体差异，以及2）预测个体与丰富环境的互动方式。首先，我们根据几种关键行为对个体进行了特征描述：在开阔地带进食、躲藏以及在展区前部附近停留的时间。在为期6个月的研究中，这些猴子的行为倾向保持一致，从而能够进行调节焦点分类。一只猴子表现出是促进型个体的迹象，即受收益驱动多于受安全驱动。一只猴子表现出是预防型个体的迹象，即受安全驱动多于受收益驱动。其他猴子的行为较为稳定，表现出是中间型个体的迹象，也就是说，它们既不偏向收益也不偏向安全。利用这些特征描述，我们预测了个体与丰富环境物品互动的不同模式。例如，我们预测促进型个体（相对于安全更青睐收益）会比预防型个体（相对于收益更青睐安全）更快地接近潜在收益。然而，与直觉相反的是，我们还预测促进型个体接近非收益物品的速度会比关注安全的预防型个体慢。我们的预测得到了支持，这表明调节焦点理论可能是理解个体如何以及为何与环境丰富物互动的有用工具。
