Measuring Personalities in Dogs: A Literature Review

In their study, Gosling, Kwan, and John (2003) proposed a systematic experiment to examine how accurately scientists can measure personalities and personality differences in non-human species (specifically, domesticated dogs). According to Gosling and his colleagues, other studies have supported the four-dimensional model of personality as a guide for measuring personality traits in dogs, which includes energy, affection, emotional reactivity, and intelligence. However, can these traits be assessed as accurately as they are in humans? To answer this question, Gosling, et al. created an experiment around three criteria for measuring assessment validity: internal consistency (the degree to which test items in a single measure consistently measure the same thing), consensus (general agreement between observer sources), and correspondence (the extent to which observer-responses predict actual behavior).