Observations versus assessments of personality: A five-method multi-species study reveals numerous biases in ratings and methodological limitations of standardised assessments

Personality assessments and observations were contrasted by applying a philosophy-ofscience paradigm and a study of 49 human raters and 150 capuchin monkeys. Twenty constructs were operationalised with 146 behavioural measurements in 17 situations to study capuchins’ individual-specific behaviours and with assessments on trait-adjective and behaviour-descriptive verb items to study raters’ pertinent mental representations. Analyses of reliability, cross-method coherence, taxonomic structures and socio-demographic associations highlighted substantial biases in assessments. Deviations from observations are located in human impression formation, stereotypical biases and the findings that raters interpret standardised items differently and that assessments cannot generate scientific quantifications or capture behaviour. These issues have important implications for the interpretation of findings from assessments and provide an explanation for their frequent lack of replicability

What is behaviour? And (when) is language behaviour? A metatheoretical definition

Behaviour is central to many fields, but metatheoretical definitions specifying the most basic assumptions about what is considered behaviour and what is not are largely lacking. This transdisciplinary research explores the challenges in defining behaviour, highlighting anthropocentric biases and a frequent lack of differentiation from physiological and psychical phenomena. To meet these challenges, the article elaborates a metatheoretical definition of behaviour that is applicable across disciplines and that allows behaviours to be differentiated from other kinds of phenomena. This definition is used to explore the phenomena of language and to scrutinise whether and under what conditions language can be considered behaviour and why. The metatheoretical concept of two different levels of meaning conveyed in language is introduced, highlighting that language inherently relies on behaviours and that the content of what-is-being-said, in and of itself, can constitute (interpersonal) behaviour under particular conditions. The analyses reveal the ways in which language meaningfully extends humans’ behavioural possibilities, pushing them far beyond anything enabled by non-language behaviours. These novel metatheoretical concepts can complement and expand on existing theories about behaviour and language and contribute a novel piece of theoretical explanation regarding the crucial role that language has played in human evolution

Fundamental challenges of contemporary “personality” research

The growing interest in “personality” from scientists of ever more diverse fields demands conceptual integrations—and reveals fundamental challenges. For what is “personality” given that “it” is explored in humans and nonhuman species, that people encode “it” in their everyday language, scientists seek “it” in the brain and study “it” primarily with rating scales

Comparing individuals within and across situations, groups and species: Metatheoretical and methodological foundations demonstrated in primate behaviour

Individuals are explored in various kinds of phenomena and contexts. But how can scientists compare individual variations across phenomena with heterogeneous properties that require different methods for their exploration? How can measurements of individual variations be made directly comparable between different studies, groups of individuals or even species? This research applies the Transdisciplinary Philosophy-of-Science Paradigm for Research on Individuals (TPS-Paradigm) to elaborate metatheoretical concepts and analytical methodologies for quantitative comparisons of individual variations within and across situations, groups and species using behavioural phenomena as examples. Established concepts from personality psychology, differential psychology and cross-cultural and cross-species research are systematically integrated into coherent frameworks and extended by adding concepts for comparing individual-specific variations (i.e., “personality”) between species. Basic principles for establishing the functional comparability of behavioural and situational categories are elaborated while considering that individuals from different groups and species often show different behaviours and encounter different situations and therefore cannot be studied with identical variables as is done in assessment-based research. Building on these principles, the chapter explores methodologies for the statistical analyses of the configurational comparability of constructs and of mean-level differences between groups and species. It highlights that situational properties are crucial for quantitative comparisons of individual variations. Fundamental differences between observational methods and assessment methods are explored, revealing serious limitations and fallacies inherent to comparisons of individuals on the basis of assessments. Implementations of the methodological principles and concepts presented are illustrated with behavioural data from four primate species (weeper capuchins, mandrills, toque macaques and rhesus macaques). This research was funded by a grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG; UH-249/1-1)

Classification Control Process

Práce se bude zabývat návrhem metodiky kvantifikace kontrolních systémů pro hodnocené charakteristiky jakosti systémů řízení automobilů. . Navržená metodika je primárně určena pro firmu TRW Dačice, ale její základní prvky mohou uplatnit i jiné testovací laboratoře ve svých kontrolních procesech.This work deals with design of monitoring systém quantification methodology, used for evaluation of car steering systems quality characteristics. Designed methodology has been prepared directly for company TRW Dačice, but the general techniques of this work could be applied in processes of any test laboratory.

Introspection put back on its feet: new research reveals conceptual leap

Perceiving physical stimuli such as light is not the same as perceiving one’s own thoughts and feelings. Introspective findings on the psychophysical laws of stimulus perception therefore cannot prove that all mental life is quantifiable as psychologists have long assume

Pedestrian bridge across the river Dyje

Předmětem této bakalářské práce je návrh nosné konstrukce lávky pro pěší přes řeku Dyji. Byly vypracovány tři varianty přemostění. Hlavní náplní je statický výpočet vybrané varianty, kterou je konstrukce tvořená ocelovým obloukem vynášejícím předpjatou betonovou desku. Výpočet účinků zatížení je proveden pomocí výpočetního softwaru Scia Engineer, posouzení provedeno pomocí programu MS Excel. Návrh je proveden v souladu s ČSN EN 1992. Fáze výstavby konstrukce nebyly řešeny.This bachelor thesis aims to design a structure of pedestrian bridge over the river Dyje. Therefore, three outlines of bridging were drafted. The main propose of this thesis is to make a static analysis of a respective outline, which is the structure of a steel arch supporting a prestressed concrete deck. The calculations were made using the Scia Engineer software and the evaluation is done in MS Excel. The design is drafted in accordance with ČSN EN 1992. This thesis, however, does not deal with the time dependent analysis.