Behavioral activation and inhibition in everyday life.

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Abstract
Joint effects of daily events and dispositional sensitivities to cues of reward and punishment on daily positive affect (PA) and negative affect (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 related to NA but not PA. Studies 2 and 3 examined how the dispositional sensitivities of independent appetitive and aversive motivational systems, the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) and the Behavioral Inhi- bition System (BIS), moderated these relationships. Participants in Study 2 with higher BAS sensitivity reported more PA on average; those with more sensitive BIS reported more NA. Also, BIS moderated reactions to negative events, such that higher BIS sensitivity magnified reactions to negative events. Study 3 replicated these findings and showed that BAS predisposed people to experience more 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. Extensive research addresses the role of mood and affect in cognition and behavior. Studies of the occurrence of and fluctua- tions in daily affect provide a logical complement to studies of affective influences on psychological processes, because they can help identify the prevalence and impact of affect in natural expe- rience. Studies of dally affective experience have largely focused on how events, mainly stressors, contribute to affect (e.g., Bolger & Zuckerman, 1995; Clark & Watson, 1988; van Eck, Nicolson, & Berkhof, 1998). However, on any given day, people experience myriad events, some positive and some negative, that influence their moods to varying degrees. The present research focused on • the role of two factors--the valence of daily events and disposi- tional sensitivities to reward and punishment--in everyday affec- five experience. We asked the general question, how do everyday events and these dispositional tendencies combine to influence day-to-day affect? Many studies have examined relationships among dispositions and psychological well-being (defined here in terms of daily affect; Diener & Lucas, 1999). Less, but still substantial, attention has been focused on within-person variability in daily affect. Both kinds of studies are needed. Whereas studies of dispositions pro- vide insights into relatively stable differences among people, stud- ies of within-person variability highlight fluctuations that are sa- lient from people's personal perspective. Although within-person

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