COMPAS

The notion of personality is firmly rooted in our everyday psychological thinking, where it denotes characteristics of individuals that show a certain consistency across time and situations. This intuitive understanding also shapes the scientific investigation of personality in both psychology and biology. Yet, foundational issues concerning theory, methodology and the nature of the object of study remain under debate.

The interdisciplinary and collaborative research initiative 'Concepts, Ontologies and Methods of Personality Across Species' (COMPAS) brings together philosophers of science and empirical researchers from psychology and biology. They jointly explore how personality is defined and conceptualised, what its underlying ontology is, how traits are classified, to what extent generalisations are possible (e.g., by identifying universal personality traits in animals and humans), how research methods in this domain can be refined, validated, and standardised, and how personality can be understood in context (e.g., through studies of situational reactivity).

The initiative aims at two overarching objectives: First, to provide philosophical insights that offer original contributions to the philosophy of science while engaging with current empirical research. Second, to contribute to the integration of personality research across species, with a particular emphasis on conceptual clarity, ontological grounding and methodological rigor.