title: Personality from a cognitive-biological perspective.
abstract: The term "personality" is used to describe a distinctive and relatively stable set of mental traits that aim to explain the organism's behavior. The concept of personality that emerged in human psychology has been also applied to the study of non-human organisms from birds to horses. In this paper, I critically review the concept of personality from an interdisciplinary perspective, and point to some ideas that may be used for developing a cognitive-biological theory of personality. Integrating theories and research findings from various fields such as cognitive ethnology, clinical psychology, and neuroscience, I argue that the common denominator of various personality theories are neural systems of threat/trust management and their emotional, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions. In this context, personality may be also conceived as a meta-heuristics both human and non-human organisms apply to model and predict the behavior of others. The paper concludes by suggesting a minimal computational model of personality that may guide future research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Education & Homeland Security Institute, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel; The Brain Sciences Foundation, 141 Waterman St. Providence, RI 02906, USA; The Behavioral Insights Research Laboratory, Victoria College, Univ. of Toronto, 73 Queen's Park Crescent, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1K7, Canada. Electronic address: yneuman@bgu.ac.il.
authors.forename: Yair
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Neuman
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D008954:Models, Biological; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009488:Neurosciences; D010551:Personality; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D012919:Social Behavior; D013850:Thinking; D035502:Trust
keywords: Distrust; Interdisciplinarity; Personality; Psychology; Threat; Trust