Behavioral activation and inhibition in everyday life

Joint effects of daily events and dispositional sensitivities,to cues of re ward and punishment on dairy positive affect (PA) and negative effect (NA) were examined in 3 diary studies. Study 1 showed that positive events were strongly related to PA but not NA, whereas negative events were strongly re lated to NA but not PA. Studies 2 and 3 examined how the dispositional sens itivities of independent appetitive and aversive motivational systems, the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) and the Behavioral Inhibition System (BI S), moderated these relationships. Participants in Study 2 with higher BAS sensitivity reported more PA on average; those with more sensitive BIS repo rted more NA. Also, BIS moderated reactions to negative events, such that h igher BIS sensitivity magnified reactions to negative events. Study 3 repli cated these findings and showed that BAS predisposed people to experience m ore positive events. Results demonstrate the value of distinguishing within -person and between-person effects to clarify the functionally independent processes by which dispositional sensitivities influence affect.