Relationships between Cloninger’s biosocial model of personality and the behavioral inhibition/approach systems (BIS/BAS)

Novelty seeking and harm avoidance are two major temperamental dimensions from the Cloninger’s biosocial model of personality that are theoretically related to Gray’s behavioral approach system (BAS) and behavioral inhibition system (BIS), respectively. The revised version of the temperament and character inventory (TCI-R) and the Carver and White BIS/BAS scales were developed to assess these constructs. Despite the theoretical relationships between the two models, no study investigated the associations between these scales. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the relationships between the TCI-R and the BIS/BAS scales. A total of 150 healthy participants (75 females) completed the BIS/BAS scales and the TCI-R. Results showed that harm avoidance and reward dependence were good predictors of BIS, whereas persistence and novelty seeking were good predictors of BAS, when age and gender were controlled. This study supports the theoretical links between BIS and harm avoidance, and between BAS and novelty seeking, and extends these links to other Cloninger’s dimension.