MABLab

Coping styles define the link between personality and stress physiology. We tend to find that some animals respond to a challenge proactively, attempting to deal with the problem in an active manner, whereas others respond reactively, almost as though they are waiting for the challenge to leave or finish. Both of these strategies can be adaptive, given the right context. However, proactive and reactive individuals tend to also differ in a range of other behaviours including aggressiveness and responses to novelty. Furthermore, these differences appear driven by (or are strongly associated with) differences in the magnitude of the physiological stress response: proactive animals have a reduced corticosteroid but higher adrenergic response to stress.

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Whilst animal personality has been demonstrated across most animal taxa, from humans all the way through to Cnidarians, demonstrations of coping styles have until now mainly been presented in vertebrates, specifically rodents, fish, companion animals, birds and farmed animals. Very little research has focused on coping styles within invertebrates, yet such work would be important in understanding the evolution of the relationship between stress [responsiveness] and specific behavioural types. One reason may be the comparatively different stress response system in invertebrates, including the lack of an endocrine system per se in e.g. anemones. 

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Given coping styles have diverse influences on a variety of behavioural, physiological and genetic measures, and in humans and other vertebrates have been identified as an important determinant of multiple medically-relevant issues including disease susceptibility and treatment efficacy, it is important to understand the process shaping these two phenotypes.