The interpersonal circumplex: A complementary approach for understanding animal personality

Abstract

This chapter reviews the benefits of adopting the interpersonal circumplex as a supplement to current approaches for understanding animal personality. The interpersonal circumplex is a representation of social behavior that is organized in a circular fashion as it is defined by a two-coordinate system consisting of agency (as the vertical axis) and communion (as the horizontal axis). The interpersonal circumplex was developed to describe and understand the social behavior of humans. We believe that the interpersonal circumplex may be helpful in gaining a better understanding of animal personality as well, because it may have implications for (1) conceptualizing the structure of animal personality and (2) accounting for the role of social behavior in animal personality. We review the limited research that has been conducted using the interpersonal circumplex in animals and suggest directions for future research.