International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) Behavioral Inhibition System and Behavioral Activation System Scales (BIS/BAS)

Some people are quickly unsettled by the possibility of criticism or failure; others are quickly drawn by the prospect of something rewarding. The scales measure four tendencies. Anxiety reflects the behavioral inhibition system (BIS), a sensitivity to signs of threat or punishment. The other three reflect the behavioral activation system (BAS): Fun-seeking, a desire for new rewards and a readiness to act on impulse; Drive, persistent pursuit of goals; and Reward Responsiveness, strong positive reactions to good outcomes.

Gray (1987) proposed that two motivational systems in the brain govern responses to punishment and reward, and that individual differences in their sensitivity underlie anxiety and impulsivity. Carver and White (1994) developed questionnaire scales for the two systems, and the version used here comprises public-domain items from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP; Goldberg et al., 2006) that correspond to those scales.

Each scale is scored separately. Higher Anxiety describes greater sensitivity to threat and a stronger tendency to stop and worry when things might go wrong; higher scores on the activation scales describe a stronger pull toward rewards, through novelty, persistence or enjoyment. The balance between the inhibition and activation scores is often more informative than any single score.

The scales are used in research on motivation, emotion, impulsivity and mood disorders, and in personal reflection. On this site, the Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS) describes self-regulation, the Hypomanic Personality Scale describes a disposition linked to strong reward sensitivity, and the Sensation-Seeking scales describe thrill-seeking more specifically.

These scales represent the behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation systems, the sensitivity to punishment and to reward described in reinforcement sensitivity theory (Carver & White, 1994). Behavioral inhibition relates to anxiety and negative feelings when punishment looms, and the behavioral activation scales relate to positive feelings when reward is expected (Carver & White, 1994).

In outpatients with anxiety and mood disorders, behavioral inhibition was higher across those disorders, and low behavioral activation was specific to depression (Campbell-Sills et al., 2004). The inhibition and activation scales are largely independent of each other, which supports their discriminant validity (Carver & White, 1994).

The four-subscale structure — Behavioural Inhibition (BIS) and the three Behavioural Activation components Drive, Fun-seeking and Reward Responsiveness — follows Carver and White's (1994) original BIS/BAS model, which the IPIP item pool was written to represent (Goldberg et al., 2006).

“Worry about what people think of me.”

Illustrative only. During administration items are presented one screen-set at a time; response-key direction is never shown to respondents.

Your report explains each of your scale scores in plain language.