تقویت حساسیت و سبک مادر بعنوان پیش بینی کننده آسیب شناسی روانی

This study examined the effect of reinforcement sensitivity and adverse parenting on adult psychopathology. One hundred eighty-one undergraduates completed a battery of self-report scales measuring Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) sensitivity, Behavioral Approach System (BAS) sensitivity, maternal care, maternal overprotection, depression, anxiety, psychopathy, and substance abuse. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses. Higher BIS and lower care scores predicted anxiety and depression; lower BAS, higher BIS, and lower care scores predicted anhedonic depression. Higher BAS and lower BIS scores predicted drug abuse and primary psychopathy; higher BAS, lower BIS, and lower care scores predicted alcohol abuse. Higher BAS and lower care scores predicted secondary psychopathy. Exposure to low maternal care predicted anxiety, depression, alcohol abuse, and secondary psychopathy after partialling out BIS and BAS sensitivity. In addition, some support was found for the hypothesis that BIS sensitivity mediates the effect of maternal overprotection on anxiety.

Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST; Gray, 1991, Gray, 1994 and Pickering and Gray, 1999) is a biologically-based theory of personality that proposes individual differences in reinforcement sensitivity. These differences are proposed to reflect individual variation in the activity of two basic brain subsystems – the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) and the Behavioral Approach System (BAS). The BIS responds to cues of punishment by motivating withdrawal behavior, whereas the BAS responds to cues of reward by motivating approach behavior. Individual differences in BIS and BAS are theorized to represent fundamental dimensions of personality. Furthermore, RST assumes that normal personality variation lies on a continuum with psychopathology. Thus, individuals at the far poles of the BIS and BAS dimensions are hypothesized to be at increased risk for developing psychopathology (Pickering & Gray, 1999).1 Several predictions regarding the relationship between RST and psychopathology have been proposed by Gray and others (e.g., Fowles, 1994, Fowles, 2001, Gray, 1991 and Gray, 1994). For example, Gray (1991) proposed that anxiety and neurotic depression (i.e., depression with comorbid anxiety) were the result of high BIS activity. Gray (1991) also proposed that psychotic depression (i.e., depression without anxiety) was the result of low BAS activity, whereas substance abuse was theorized to result from high BAS activity (Gray, 1994). Similarly, Fowles, 1994 and Fowles, 2001 has proposed that substance abuse results primarily from a dominance of BAS over BIS. In addition, the Fowles-Gray-Lykken theory of psychopathy (Fowles, 2001, Gray, 1991 and Lykken, 1995) predicts that primary psychopathy – which is characterized by undersocialization, impulsivity, aggression, and relatively low levels of anxiety (Blackburn, 1975) – results from low BIS and normal BAS. The theory also predicts that secondary (or neurotic) psychopathy – which is characterized by undersocialization, impulsivity, aggression, and relatively high levels of anxiety and depression (Blackburn, 1975) – results from high BAS and normal BIS. In recent years, support for many of these predictions has been found using self-report measures of BIS and BAS; however, some of the evidence has been mixed. For example, Johnson, Turner, and Iwata (2003) conducted an epidemiological study and found that higher BIS scores predicted lifetime diagnoses of both anxiety and depressive disorders. They also reported that higher BAS scores predicted lifetime diagnoses of drug abuse and dependence. They did not, however, find evidence that lower BAS scores were associated with depression or that higher BAS scores were associated with alcohol abuse. In contrast, Loxton and Dawe (2001) reported that both higher BAS and lower BIS scores were associated with alcohol abuse, and Kasch and colleagues found that depressed participants reported both higher levels of BIS and lower levels of BAS than did non-depressed controls (Kasch, Rottenberg, Arnow, & Gotlib, 2002). Thus, while there is support for many RST predictions, some questions remain regarding the relationship between RST and psychopathology. One looming question is whether depression is primarily the result of high BIS functioning, low BAS functioning, or a combination of the two. We proposed examining the associations between BIS, BAS, and subtypes of depressive symptoms as a means of resolving this issue. Because anxiety and depression are thought to share a common negative affective component (Clark & Watson, 1991), and because the BIS is theorized to underlie both anxiety and neurotic depression (Gray, 1991), we hypothesized anxiety and shared anxiety-depression symptoms would be predicted by higher BIS scores. In contrast, we predicted that symptoms of anhedonic depression, which are theorized to differentiate depression from anxiety (Clark & Watson, 1991), would be predicted by lower BAS scores. Regarding substance abuse, while it appears that the BAS is the primary motivational system involved, it remains unclear whether the BIS plays a significant role as well. As Fowles (2001) has noted, “A dominance of the BAS over the BIS would produce both an impulsive temperament and a bias toward the positively reinforcing effects of drugs of abuse over the delayed negative consequences” (p. 94). Accordingly, we predicted that individuals at greatest risk for drug and alcohol problems would be characterized by both a high BAS and a low BIS. With respect to RST and psychopathy, Newman and colleagues recently reported the first study (to our knowledge) of psychopathy involving self-report measures designed specifically to measure BIS and BAS (Newman, MacGoon, Vaughn, & Sadeh, 2005). As predicted by the Fowles-Gray-Lykken theory of psychopathy, primary psychopathy was associated with low BIS and normal BAS, and secondary psychopathy was associated with high BAS and normal to high BIS among a sample of inmates. These findings provide preliminary support for the Fowles-Gray-Lykken theory of psychopathy using self-report RST measures; however, further research is needed to replicate these findings and to clarify the association between BIS and secondary psychopathy. Finally, there are questions regarding whether environmental variables interact with BIS and BAS to predict psychopathology, and whether some of the effects attributed to environmental variables may be mediated by BIS and BAS sensitivity. For example, Fowles (1994) has proposed that the BIS and BAS may “mediate the effects of environmental influences, such as aversive environments or exposure to addicting drugs” (p. 187). The current study explored this hypothesis by examining the predictive value of BIS and BAS in conjunction with two well-known dimensions of parenting – care and overprotection. Low parental care, which is characterized by parental coldness and rejection, has been associated with increased risk for a wide range of psychopathology, including anxiety, depression, drug and alcohol dependence, and anti-social personality disorder (Enns, Cox, & Clara, 2002). High parental overprotection, which is characterized by a controlling, intrusive parenting style, has also been associated with increased risk for psychopathology (Enns et al., 2002); however, it tends to be a less robust predictor than care and appears to be most related to anxiety (e.g., Parker, 1979). Overprotection was, however, of particular interest to this study due to Chorpita and Barlow’s (1998) hypothesis that “stored information related to a history of low control should result in heightened activity of the BIS, hence greater anxiety” (p. 5). The current study sought to test this hypothesis by testing a model in which BIS sensitivity mediated the effect of overprotection on anxiety. Only maternal (and not paternal) care and overprotection were measured in this study due to previous findings that maternal parenting experiences are more consistently associated with increased risk for psychopathology (e.g., Enns et al., 2002 and Parker, 1979). 1.1. Predictions It was hypothesized that: (1) Higher BIS and lower care scores would predict anxiety and shared anxiety-depression scores. (2) Lower BAS and lower care scores would predict anhedonic depression scores. (3) Higher BAS, lower BIS, and lower care scores would predict alcohol abuse scores. (4) Higher BAS, lower BIS, and lower care scores would predict drug abuse scores. (5) Lower BIS scores would predict primary psychopathy scores. (6) Higher BAS scores would predict secondary psychopathy scores. (7) BIS would mediate the effect of overprotection on anxiety and shared anxiety-depression scores. In addition, we explored whether the predictors interacted to predict symptoms of psychopathology above the main effects.