Formal and computational models of Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511819384.017

16 - Formal and computational models of Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2011

Alan D. Pickering

Edited by

Philip J. Corr

Show author details

Alan D. Pickering: Affiliation:
Professor, Department of Psychology University of London, UK
Philip J. Corr: Affiliation:
University of Wales, Swansea

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Jeffrey Gray (Gray 1970, 1981, 1987) developed a ‘bottom-up’ approach to personality which began with the identification of large-scale brain-behavioural systems in animals (based on lesion and psychopharmacological evidence). The systems which he emphasized were: a reward system (later termed the Behavioural Activation System or BAS); a punishment system; an arousal system; and a Fight-Flight System. His view of personality was that inter-individual differences in the functioning of each discrete system should give rise, in human beings, to a major dimension (or trait) of personality. The theory also talked particularly about the sensitivity (i.e., reactivity) of each system to its characteristic inputs (i.e., the inputs which activated that system rather than any of the others). Inter-individual differences in the sensitivities of the systems were taken to be the causal basis of human personality traits. As the names ‘reward system’ and ‘punishment system’ implied, the characteristic inputs of the systems were reinforcing stimuli. To capture these aspects of the theory, I suggested the name Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) for the personality theory which he developed.

Basic tenets of the original RST

In the original version of the theory (which I shall call ‘old RST’ in this chapter), the personality trait corresponding to variations in functioning of the BAS was suggested to be impulsivity. The punishment system (so-called because it was thought that this system responded to conditioned stimuli signalling impending punishment) was referred to as the Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS): the personality trait corresponding to variations in functioning of the BIS was suggested to be anxiety.

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: The Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of Personality , pp. 453 - 481

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511819384.017 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Carver, C. S. and White, T. L. (1994), Behavioral inhibition, behavioral activation, and affective responses to impending reward and punishment: the Behavioural Inhibition System/Behavioural Approach System, scales, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 319–333CrossRef Google Scholar

Cloninger, C. R. (1986), A unified biosocial theory of personality and its role in the development of anxiety states, Psychiatric Developments, 3, 167–226Google Scholar

Cloninger, C. R. (1989), The Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (St Louis, MO: Department of Psychiatry and Genetics, Washington University School of Medicine)Google Scholar

Corr, P. J. (2001), Testing problems in J. A. Gray's personality theory: a commentary on Matthews and Gilliland (1999), Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 333–352CrossRef Google Scholar

Corr, P. J.(2002), J. A.Gray's reinforcement sensitivity theory: tests of the joint subsystems hypothesis of anxiety and impulsivity, Personality and Individual Differences, 33, 511–532CrossRef Google Scholar

Corr, P. J.(2004), Reinforcement sensitivity theory and personality, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 28, 317–332CrossRef Google Scholar

Depue, R. A. and Collins, P. F. (1999). Neurobiology of the structure of personality: Dopamine, facilitation of incentive motivation, and extraversion, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 491–517CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Díaz, A. and Pickering, A. D. (1993), The relationship between Gray's and Eysenck's personality spaces, Personality and Individual Differences, 15, 297–305CrossRef Google Scholar

Eysenck, H. J. and Eysenck, S. B. G. (1975), Manual of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Junior and Adult) (London: Hodder and Stoughton)Google Scholar

Gray, J. A. (1970), The psychophysiological basis of introversion-extraversion, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 8, 249–266CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Gray, J. A. (1981), A critique of Eysenck's theory of personality in Eysenck, H. J. (ed.), A Model for Personality (Berlin: Springer), pp. 246–276CrossRef Google Scholar

Gray, J. A.(1987), The Psychology of Fear and Stress (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar

Gray, J. A. and McNaughton, N. (2000), The Neuropsychology of Anxiety: an Enquiry into the Functions of the Septo-hippocampal System (2nd edn, Oxford: Oxford University Press)Google Scholar

Gray, J. A. and Smith, P. T. (1969), An arousal-decision model for partial reinforcement and discrimination learning in Gilbert, R. and Sutherland, N. S. (eds), Animal Discrimination Learning (London: Academic Press), pp. 243–272Google Scholar

Lessiter, J. (1999), A Dopaminergic Model of Reward Motivation: a Test of Implications for Personality and Schizophrenia (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of London)

McNaughton, N. and Corr, P. (2004), A two-dimensional neuropsychology of defense: fear/anxiety and defensive distance, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 28, 285–305CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Mason, O., Claridge, G. and Jackson, M. (1995), New scales for the assessment of schizotypy, Personality and Individual Differences, 18, 7–13CrossRef Google Scholar

Matthews, G. and Gilliland, K. (1999), The personality theories of H. J. Eysenck and J. A. Gray: a comparative review, Personality and Individual Differences, 26, 583–626CrossRef Google Scholar

Pickering, A. D. (1997), The conceptual nervous system and personality: from Pavlov to neural networks, European Psychologist, 2, 139–163CrossRef Google Scholar

Pickering, A. D. (2004a), A formal model of ‘new’ reinforcement sensitivity theory, paper presented at the twelfth European Conference on Personality, Groningen, The Netherlands, 18–22 July 2004

Pickering, A. D.(2004b), The neuropsychology of impulsive antisocial sensation seeking: from dopamine to hippocampal function? in Stelmack, R. M. (ed.), On the Psychobiology of Personality: Essays in Honor of Marvin Zuckerman (Oxford:Elsevier), pp. 455–478Google Scholar

Pickering, A. D., Corr, P. J., Powell, J. H., Kumari, V., Thornton, J. C. and Gray, J. A. (1997), Individual differences in reactions to reinforcing stimuli are neither black nor white: to what extent are they Gray? in Nyborg, H. (ed.), The Scientific Study of Human Nature: Tribute to Hans J. Eysenck at 80 (London: Elsevier Sciences), pp. 36–67Google Scholar

Pickering, A. D., Díaz, A. and Gray, J. A. (1995), Personality and reinforcement: an exploration using a maze-learning task, Personality and Individual Differences, 18, 541–558CrossRef Google Scholar

Pickering, A. D. and Gray, J. A. (1999), The neuroscience of personality in Pervin, L. and John, O. (eds.), Handbook of Personality (2nd edn, New York: Guilford Press), pp. 277–299Google Scholar

Pickering, A. D. and Gray, J. A. (2001), Dopamine, appetitive reinforcement, and the neuropsychology of human learning: an individual differences approach in Eliasz, A. and Angleitner, A. (eds.), Advances in Individual Differences Research (Lengerich: PABST Science Publishers), pp. 113–149Google Scholar

Pickering, A. D., Dawkins, L., Lessiter, J., Tharp, I., Jones, L., Halari, R., Powell, J. F., and Powell, J. H. (in preparation), Investigating the Behavioural Activation System

Smillie, L. D., Pickering, A. D. and Jackson, C. J. (2006), The new reinforcement sensitivity theory: implications for personality measurement, Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10, 320–335

Torrubia, R., Ávila, C., Moltó, J. and Caserás, X. (2001), The sensitivity to punishment and sensitivity to reward questionnaire (SPSRQ) as a measure of Gray's anxiety and impulsivity dimensions, Personality and Individual Differences, 15, 837–862CrossRef Google Scholar

Torrubia, R. and Tobeña, A. (1984), A scale for the assessment of ‘susceptibility to punishment’ as a measure of anxiety: preliminary results, Personality and Individual Differences, 5, 371–375CrossRef Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.