J. A. Gray (1981, 1982) holds that 2 general motivational systems underlie behavior and affect: a behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and a behavioral activation system (BAS). Self-report scales to assess dispositional BIS and BAS sensitivities were created. Scale development (Study 1) and convergent and discriminant validity in the form of correlations with alternative measures are reported (Study 2). In Study 3, a situation in which Ss anticipated a punishment was created. Controlling for initial nervousness, Ss high in BIS sensitivity (assessed earlier) were more nervous than those low in BIS sensitivity. In Study 4, a situation in which Ss anticipated a reward was created. Controlling for initial happiness, Ss high in BAS sensitivity (Reward Responsiveness and Drive scales) were happier than those low in BAS sensitivity. In each case the new scales predicted better than an alternative measure. Discussion is focused on conceptual implications.

Behavioral inhibition, behavioral activation, and affective responses to impending reward and punishment: The BIS/BAS Scales

L'auteur discute un modele a cinq facteurs de la personnalite qu'il confronte a d'autres systemes de la personnalite et dont les correlats des dimensions sont analyses ainsi que les problemes methodologiques

Personality structure: emergence of the five-factor model

Etude de la coherence entre differentes sources (269 echantillons utilisees dans 119 etudes) concernant les evaluations des problemes affectifs et comportementaux d'enfants et d'adolescents âges de 1 1/2 a 19 ans

Child/adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: implications of cross-informant correlations for situational specificity.

The measurement of meaning

A theory was proposed to reconcile paradoxical findings on the invariance of personality and the variability of behavior across situations. For this purpose, individuals were assumed to differ in (a) the accessibility of cognitive-affective mediating units (such as encodings, expectancies and beliefs, affects, and goals) and (b) the organization of relationships through which these units interact with each other and with psychological features of situations. The theory accounts for individual differences in predictable patterns of variability across situations (e.g., if A. then she X, but ifE then she Y), as well as for overall average levels of behavior, as essential expressions or behavioral signatures of the same underlying personality system. Situations, personality dispositions, dynamics, and structure were reconceptualized from this perspective. The construct of personality rests on the assumption that individuals are characterized by distinctive qualities that are relatively invariant across situations and over time. In a century of personality research, however, abundant evidence has documented that individual differences in social behaviors tend to be surprisingly variable across different situations. Although this finding has been interpreted as evidence against the utility of the personality construct, we show that it need not be and, on the contrary, that this variability reflects some of the essence of personality coherence. When personality is conceptualized as a stable system that mediates how the individual selects, construes, and processes social information and generates social behaviors, it becomes possible to account simultaneously for both the invariant qualities of the underlying personality and the predictable variability across situations in some of its characteristic behavioral expressions. In this article, we begin with a review of recent empirical data demonstrating that individuals are characterized not only by stable individual differences in their overall levels of behavior, but also by distinctive and stable patterns of behavior variability across situations. These findings invite a new conception of personality in which such patterns of variability are seen not as

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A cognitive-affective system theory of personality: Reconceptualizing situations, dispositions, dynamics, and invariance in personality structure.

Behavior problems of middle childhood.

This text addresses the history, evolution, current trends and future prospects of psychotherapy. Leading authorities in this field discuss psychotherapy's European/Victorian rudiments, provide reviews of frameworks and present reports on the major US psychotherapy research centres. Also included are historic contributions of women and ethnic minority practitioners and material concerning psychotherapeutic work with both children and the elderly.

Donald R. Peterson

Papers

Behavior problems of middle childhood.

History of psychotherapy: A century of change.

The clinical study of social behavior

The identification and measurement of predispositional factors in crime and delinquency.

Scope and generality of verbaly defined personality factors.