Reinforcement sensitivity theory
Reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) proposes three brain-behavioral systems that underlie individual differences in sensitivity to
Origins and evolution of the theory
Eysenck's two original personality factors,
Gray's biopsychological theory: behavioral activation and inhibition systems
Unlike Eysenck, Gray believed that personality traits and disorders could not be explained by classical conditioning alone. Gray proposed the Biopsychological Theory of personality in 1970 based on extensive animal research.[12] His theory emphasized the relationship between personality and sensitivity to reinforcement (i.e. reward and punishment). Eysenck's theory emphasized Extraversion, Neuroticism, and arousal, while Gray's theory emphasized Impulsivity, Anxiety, approach motivation, and avoidance motivation.[11]
In his original theory, Gray proposed two new dimensions to Eysenck's theory - anxiety and impulsivity.[11] Gray's anxiety, or BIS, correlates with Eysenck's neuroticism.[11] Gray's impulsivity, or BAS, correlates with Eysenck's extraversion.[11] Even though Gray's original theory was modified later by Gray himself, the original theory still made some contributions to the study of biological systems and their role in personality.[13] The largest of these contributions was that the biological central nervous system can be linked to a psychological reward system, composed of approach and inhibition systems.[13]
Gray's model of personality was based on three hypothesized brain systems:
Behavioral activation system (BAS)
- The BAS includes brain regions involved in regulating arousal: cerebral cortex, thalamus, and striatum.[14] The system is responsive to conditioned and unconditioned reward cues. BAS regulates approach behaviors and is referred to as the reward system.[12] It has also been called the "go" system because it motivates actions that lead to rewards.[15] In general, individuals with a more active BAS tend to be more impulsive and may have difficulty inhibiting their behavior when approaching a goal.[16] Furthermore, BAS is related to stimuli associated with the presence of reward and/or the cease of punishment, also understood as positive reinforcement.[17]
Behavioral inhibition system (BIS)
- The BIS also includes brain regions involved in regulating arousal: the brain stem, and neocortical projections to the frontal lobe. BIS is responsive to punishment, novelty, uncertainty, and non-rewarding stimuli. BIS regulates avoidance behaviors and is often referred to as the punishment system. It has also been called the "stop" because it encourages inhibition of behaviors.[15] Individuals with more active BIS may be vulnerable to negative emotions, including frustration, anxiety, fear, and sadness.[12][16] Furthermore, BIS is related to stimuli associated with the presence of punishment and/or the cease of reward, also understood as negative reinforcement.[18]
Fight/flight system (FFS)
- The FFS encourages extreme reactions in response to threats.[19] These include reactions of rage, panic, and fight or flight, and is sensitive to unconditioned aversive stimuli. FFS is often referred to as the threat system.[8] A common misunderstanding can be that FFS is a measure of one's reaction to lean more towards fighting or to lean more towards fleeing in response to perceived threats;[20] however, FFS is a measure of one's intensity to respond with either fight or flight behavior, as opposed to reacting not so acutely to perceived threats.[20] Individuals with more sensitive FFS are quicker to fight or flee in dangerous situations.[19]
According to Gray, personality traits are associated with individual differences in the strengths of BAS (approach motivation) and BIS (avoidance motivation) systems. As it is defined for the remainder of the article, higher BAS/BIS refers to greater activation of that system.[21]
Measures
High BAS is generally associated with high extraversion, low neuroticism, and trait impulsivity, while high BIS is associated with low extraversion, high neuroticism, and trait anxiety. In addition to predicting trait standings, high BAS is associated with higher positive affect in response to reward, while high BIS is associated with higher negative affect in response to punishment.[8] Studies in Gray's laboratory supported his prediction that extraverts, higher in BAS and lower in BIS than introverts, are more sensitive to rewards, experience higher levels of positive affect, and learn faster under rewarding conditions.[1][8]
The most widely used measures of the approach (BAS) and avoidance (BIS) systems are the BIS/BAS scales developed by Carver and White in 1994.[22] The Generalized Reward and Punishment Expectancies Scales (GRAPES) were also used to operationalize BIS and BAS.[23] Both self-report measures (listed above) and behavioral measures (such as affective modulation of the eyeblink startle response) have been used to test predictions and provide mixed support for Gray's theory.[3]
Critique
These measures were constructed under the assumption that BIS, BAS and associated traits Anxiety and Impulsivity are independent.[1] In contrast, Gray first described BIS and BAS as opposing systems with bidirectional inhibitory links in animal models.[3] Thus, empirical results that claimed to falsify the theory may have relied on faulty predictions for independent, non-interacting systems. Gray's theory was also criticized because the boundary between FFS (threat response system) and BIS (punishment system) was difficult to define empirically, akin to differentiating between fear and anxiety.[24][25] Matthews and Gilliland proposed separate cognitive systems underlying fear and anxiety and emphasized the need to study these systems outside of animal models.[11] These critiques led to a major revision and renaming of the theory in 2000.[26] The Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) redefined the three systems underlying anxiety, impulsivity, motivation, and reinforcement learning.[26]
Reinforcement sensitivity theory
Reinforcement sensitivity theory is one of the major biological models of individual differences in emotion, motivation, and learning. The theory distinguishes between fear and anxiety, and links reinforcement processes to personality.
Behavioral activation system (BAS)
- Proposed to facilitate reactions to all appetitive/rewarding stimuli and regulates approach behavior.[26]
Behavioral inhibition system (BIS)
- Proposed to mediate conflict both within and between FFFS and BAS: FFFS (avoidance) and BAS (approach) (or BAS-BAS, FFFS-FFFS). These conflicts underlie anxiety.[26]
Fight-flight-freeze system (FFFS)
- Proposed to mediate reactions to all aversive/ punishing stimuli (conditioned and unconditioned), regulates avoidance behavior, and underlies fear.[26]
Improved measures
The fight-flight-freeze system (FFFS) was expanded to include all aversive/punishment stimuli, conditioned and unconditioned. Similarly, the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) was expanded to include all appetitive/reward stimuli.[26] The Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) was defined as a conflict system activated whenever both BAS and FFFS are activated together or multiple inputs compete within the systems, thereby producing anxiety.[3] If the systems are assumed to be functionally related, the effect of a given stimulus is dependent upon the strength of that stimulus, reactivity in the activated system, and strength of the competing system.[3] Thus, for a reward, the behavior output from BAS is dependent on the strength of the reward, activation of the BAS, and inhibition strength of BIS. For example, if a reward outweighs a threat, the BIS should excite the BAS and inhibit the FFFS, which will likely result in approach behavior.[1]
The new RST distinguishes the subsystems underlying anxiety and fear. The FFFS is associated with fear and the BIS is associated with anxiety. This distinction is still debated, especially in clinical settings wherein BIS scores are sensitive to fear/panic-reducing, not anxiety-reducing treatments.[27] Furthermore, the possibility of anxiety's triggering panic and vice versa supports a model of the BIS and the FFFS in which the two are not causally independent. Conflicting results regarding the relationship between fear and anxiety may reflect measures which were not updated to reflect the functionally dependent systems of the new RST.[1][3] A review by Perkins and Corr (2006) found that the BIS as measured in Carver, 1994 scales[22] and similar constructs tap into the FFFS (which fear responses) and not the true BIS (which underlies anxiety). These definitions were not updated to reflect the revised RST model.[26][28] D.C. Blanchard and colleagues (2001) created vignettes with response options that modeled rodent reactions to anxiety (the BIS, used ambiguous/partially threatening stimuli) and fear (the FFFS, used pure threat situations) to study these constructs in humans.[29] These behavioroid scales ask: "What would you do if (insert scenario inducing fear or anxiety)?" Response options accurately reflect the revised RST, but have not been widely tested or applied.[25]
Separable and joint subsystems hypotheses
The revised RST reflects functional dependence of the systems; however, there are two competing hypotheses developed for testing RST predictions. The separable systems hypothesis (SSH) is defined by two independent systems, reward and punishment.[30] Independence implies that reactivity to rewards should be approximately equal across all levels of punishment, and reactivity to punishment should be equal across all levels of reward. Thus, rewarding stimuli may activate the BAS, without exerting effects on the BIS or the FFFS.[1] The SSH is proposed to operate in extreme circumstances, within individuals with highly reactive systems and/or experimental conditions that only present rewarding or punishing stimuli.[30] The separable subsystems hypothesis has been applied successfully to study reinforcement learning and motivation in clinical populations.[27] Alternatively, the joint subsystems hypothesis (JSH), in accordance with Gray's original animal models and the revised RST, states that reward and punishment exert combined effects in the BAS and the FFFS, while the BIS resolves conflict within and between the systems. The reward and punishment systems are defined as dependent, such that reward activation (the BAS) both increases responses to appetitive stimuli and decreases responses to aversive stimuli. The joint subsystems hypothesis is most applicable in real-world contexts that contain mixed stimuli: strong, weak, punishment, and reward.[30]
In a recent review on RST measurement, authors distinguished between dependent system inputs and dependent behavioral outputs.
As mentioned previously, these complex, dependent systems are not reflected in questionnaires, such as Carver's BIS/BAS,[22] that are oftentimes used to test RST predictions. A variety of disparate experimental findings, originally viewed as inconsistent with Gray's Biopsychological theory, are more consistent with RST joint systems hypothesis.[1]
Renaming impulsivity
Smillie, Pickering, and Jackson (2006) advocated for renaming trait Impulsivity, which is associated with BAS in the revised RST, Extraversion.[31] Empirical tests find that Extraversion is a better predictor than Impulsivity of reward learning.[31] Some components of the BAS and reward learning are better explained by association with Extraversion, especially high positive affect, while the cortical arousal loop originally proposed to underlie BAS in Gray's theory is still tied most closely with Impulsivity.[3][8] Regardless of the trait label, the authors point out that the RST did not develop as a theory to explain the personality constructs, Anxiety and Impulsivity.[31] Rather, the RST predicts associations between reinforcement sensitivity, motivation, and behavior.[3]
Applications
Workplace performance
Carver and White's 1994 BIS/BAS scales
Clinical research
The BIS and BAS sensitivities are associated with individual differences in positive and negative affect.
A study by Masuyama et al. suggests that treatment interventions, which increase trait resilience, may be helpful in decreasing depressive symptoms.[33] High BIS was found to correlate directly with stronger depressive symptoms, while high BAS was found to correlate directly with low depressive symptoms.[33] This confirmed results from previous studies.[33] The study tested trait resilience as a mediator and found that trait resilience correlates negatively with depression.[33] Therefore, high BAS leads to high trait resilience, which in turn leads to lower depressive symptoms.[33] High BIS leads to decreased trait resilience, which in turn leads to increased depressive symptoms.[33]
Some research shows that BIS and BAS levels may be useful in predicting onset of substance use disorders. Individuals with a stronger, more-sensitive BAS system correlated with early onset of substance use disorders.[34]
Levels of BIS and BAS can be used to predict levels of substance use.[35] Individuals with low BIS levels combined with high BAS levels showed activation patterns similar to activation patterns of heavy substance users in past studies.[35] Individuals with high BIS levels and low BAS levels showed patterns of expectancy activation similar to those of light or non-users.[35]
See also
- Biological basis of personality
- Extraversion and introversion
- Personality psychology
- Reinforcement
- Trait theory
References
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- ^ Allport, G. W.; Odbert, H.S. (1936). "Trait-Names: A Psycho-lexical Study". Psychological Monographs. 7 (211).
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- ^ a b Revelle, William. The Contribution of Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory to Personality Theory. Cambridge University Press. pp. 4–6.
- ^ De Pascalis, V., Fiore, A., Sparita, A. (1996). Personality, event-related potential (ERP) and heart rate (HR): An investigation of Gray's theory. Personality and Individual Differences, 20, 733-746.
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External links
- The BIS/BAS Scale The BIS/BAS scale with scoring instructions