Individual differences in sensitivities of the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) and Behavioral Approach System (BAS) have been posited to underlie stable differences in individuals’ unique patterns of responding to cues of punishment and reward in their environment. Conceived from the outset as neurological systems, the BIS and BAS have repeatedly been linked to brain structure and function t...

Gray's Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) asserts three core personality systems: the behavioral approach system (BAS), the fight-flight-freeze system (FFFS) and the revised behavioral inhibition system (r-BIS). Past models of frontal activity link greater relative left frontal activity with Carver and White's (1994) BAS scale and trait impulsivity and greater relative right frontal activit...

The behavioral inhibition system (BIS) is the neurological substrate of trait anxiety and is linked to the development of anxiety disorders. Three experiments are reported that investigate the moderating influence of the BIS on 1 pathway to fear: threat information. In all studies, children were given verbal information about a set of novel animals, and their BIS sensitivity was measured. The r...

INTRODUCTION Hazardous drinking is characterized by decisions to engage in excessive or risky patterns of alcohol consumption. Levels of impulsivity and behavioral approach and inhibition may differ in hazardous drinkers and nonhazardous drinkers. A comparison of the relative levels of dimensions of impulsivity and behavioral inhibition and approach in adult men and women hazardous and nonhazar...

Abstract This paper presents the RST-AQ, a 22-item scale to measure affective states related three motivational systems postulated by Reinforcement Sensitivity theory (RST-AQ): Behavioral approach system (BAS), inhibition (BIS), and Fight-Flight-Freeze (FFFS). The subscales are internally consistent. Results show an overall support for construct validity of our RST-AQ measure. correlations with...

According to Gray's (1973) Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST), a Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) and a Behavioral Activation System (BAS) mediate effects of goal conflict and reward on behavior. BIS functioning has been linked with individual differences in trait anxiety and BAS functioning with individual differences in trait impulsivity. In this article, it is argued that behavioral ou...

Over the past two decades, the neurobiological substrates of the reinforcement theory have been discussed in terms of a behavioral activation system (BAS) and a behavioral inhibition system (BIS). While the BAS has been conceptualized as both an activating system and an approach-related system, the empirical evidence for either approach remains inconclusive. In the current study we hypothesize ...