The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Master's Theses Summer 8-2016 Establishing a Link Between Personality and Social Rank in a Group of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) Erin Elizabeth Frick University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses Part of the Animal Studies Commons, Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons, and the Personality and Social Contexts Commons Recommended Citation Frick, Erin Elizabeth, "Establishing a Link Between Personality and Social Rank in a Group of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)" (2016). Master's Theses. 186. https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/186 This Masters Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ESTABLISHING A LINK BETWEEN PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL RANK IN A GROUP OF BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS (TURSIOPS TRUNCATUS) by Erin Elizabeth Frick A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate School and the Department of Psychology at The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Dr. Stanley A. Kuczaj Thesis Director, Professor, Psychology Approved: ________________________________________________ Dr. David Echevarria, Committee Chair Associate Professor, Psychology ________________________________________________ Dr. Donald Sacco, Committee Member Assistant Professor, Psychology ________________________________________________ Dr. Holli Eskelinen, Committee Member Assistant Director of Research, Dolphins Plus ________________________________________________ Dr. Karen S. Coats Dean of the Graduate School August 2016 COPYRIGHT BY Erin Elizabeth Frick 2016 Published by the Graduate School ABSTRACT ESTABLISING A LINK BETWEEN PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL RANK IN A GROUP OF BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS (TURSIOPS TRUNCATUS) by Erin Elizabeth Frick August 2016 Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) have been documented to possess personality traits that remain consistent over time (Highfill & Kuczaj, 2007) and across contexts (Kuczaj, Highfill, & Byerly, 2012). Such individual differences are thought to play an important role in various social contexts such as hierarchical dominance (Highfill & Kuczaj, 2010). The present study investigated the relationship between personality and social rank within a captive group of bottlenose dolphins housed at the Roatan Institute for Marine Science (RIMS). Social rank was established using questionnaires distributed to the RIMS experienced staff. Personality traits were derived from behavioral coding using context-specific correlational matrices. The traits were then correlated to each dolphin’s social rank position. The results suggest that a relationship between individual personality and social status is present, but complex. Traits that emerged exhibited sex- differences. Of the 12 factors found for the males, sexual (DID), contact seeking (DIO), and camaraderie (DID) were significantly related to social rank. For the females, only factors playful (DIO) and evasive (DIH) were significantly related to social rank. Individuals ranked at both extremes of the hierarchy (highest and lowest) seem to exhibit a more correlative relationship between personality and social status. However, other factors appear to play an important role in this relationship for middle-ranked dolphins. These results suggest that factors such as age, strength of associations between ii individuals, maternal style, and interactions between the male and female hierarchies all influence how personality is expressed in different contexts. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my committee members: David Echevarria, for his mentorship and unyielding support in research and life; Holli Eskelinen, for her advice, continued guidance, and invaluable feedback; and Donald Sacco, for his keen eye for parsimony. This project would not have been possible without help from the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences staff and trainers for allowing us to collect the data, and Kendal Smith for her time and efforts coding reliability. I would like to thank my lab colleagues, friends, and family; I could not have made it through this process without your support. Special thanks to Kelley Winship, Audra Ames, and Kelsey Moreno for their work on feedback and edits, and Chris Lustgraaf, for his statistical assistance and constant encouragement. Finally, I would like to thank and honor my mentor, Dr. Stan Kuczaj, who passed away before the completion of this process. I will be forever grateful for your unyielding support and the work you contributed to this project. You were not only my mentor, but also a friend, and I hope my continued research in this field will carry on part of your legacy, along with all of us impacted by our time spent working with you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ........................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 Research in Animal Personality ...................................................................................... 1 Current Study ................................................................................................................ 13 CHAPTER II – METHODS ............................................................................................. 16 Subjects and Facility ..................................................................................................... 16 Data Collection ............................................................................................................. 17 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................ 19 CHAPTER III - RESULTS ............................................................................................... 25 Social Rank ................................................................................................................... 25 Personality..................................................................................................................... 25 Personality and Social Rank ......................................................................................... 30 Males ......................................................................................................................... 30 Females ..................................................................................................................... 31 Agentic and Communal Factors .................................................................................... 32 v CHAPTER IV – DISCUSSION........................................................................................ 35 Relationship between Personality and Social Rank ...................................................... 35 Sex-Differences............................................................................................................. 44 Limitations .................................................................................................................... 47 Future Directions .......................................................................................................... 49 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 50 APPENDIX A – Ethogram ............................................................................................... 52 APPENDIX B - Correlation Matrix Tables ...................................................................... 55 APPENDIX C - Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee Notice of Committee Action ................................................................................................................................ 60 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 61 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Demographic Information for RIMS dolphins .................................................... 17 Table 2 Behaviors in each Context Retained for Analysis for Males and Females .......... 21 Table 3 Composite Personality Traits for Male Dolphins ................................................ 27 Table 4 Composite Personality Traits for Female Dolphins ............................................. 27 Table 5 Personality Profile for the Male Dolphins ........................................................... 28 Table 6 Personality Profile for the Female Dolphins........................................................ 29 Table A1. Operational Definitions of Behaviors Coded ................................................... 52 Table A2. Operational Definitions of Contexts ................................................................ 54 Table A1. Spearman Rank Correlation Matrix for Male DID Coded Items ..................... 55 Table A2. Spearman’s Rank