The history of mental health has assumed that we humans do whatever possible to seek pleasure and avoid pain. The 1980s pumped out some foundational theories, including how this assumption applies to mental health and therapists’ work with clients.
To note, newer research finds there are contexts in which humans actually want to feel negative emotions. Like when someone may be resistant to letting go of anger because of the sense of power it provides in uncontrollable situations. Specific contexts shape what people are motivated to feel, and influence how we regulate emotions and approach therapy.
By and large though, the seek pleasure and avoid pain theory of human motivation still has utility for mental health and therapy. In particular, a researcher in the 1980s named Jeffrey Gray proposed that this idea forms a reinforced tendency, or trait that individuals develop across many situations.
Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory proposes a few human “systems” of behavior. First, there is a tendency to behave in ways that help people seek or approach rewarding experiences. For example, we may seek more activities that provide meaning or joy (even if those require effort). Researchers refer to this approach tendency as the behavioral activation system (BAS; usually pronounced ‘bass’).”
On the other hand, he proposed there is also a tendency to do whatever possible to avoid negative experiences. For example, we may stay away from anxiety provoking social situations, even we lose referral contacts for a therapy business. This avoidance tendency is referred to as the behavioral inhibition system (BIS; usually researchers pronounce this “biss”)
Gray asserted that this BAS/BIS tendency can be reinforced for individuals to such a degree that it forms what is almost a personality trait. That is, we all sit somewhere on this continuum from BAS to BIS. Some individuals can be overall high in BIS or BAS across most situations. Like many things, a good balance of both tendencies (or either one applied in the right situations) is usually most adaptive. I’m sure we all also know those people who seem to just chase reward for everything, even when challenges arise. Looks nice!
It is also possible to be “high in BAS” for some experiences, but “high in BIS” for others. One person might be higher in BAS for most situations (e.g., seeking social interactions or rewarding work opportunities), but they show more BIS in dating situations due to attachment difficulties.
You can probably start to see how this translates to mental health and therapy. Extreme BAS is often seen in bipolar mania. Hyperspending behaviors, hypersexuality, no sleep, etc. “Woooo Hoooo!!” It’s all reward, baby! Some impulsive behaviors may also entail high BAS, with no healthy sense for avoiding negative repercussions.
But outside these examples, many clients seen in therapy may be more in BIS realm. For example, extreme avoidance for perceived social catastrophe occurs in social anxiety. Fear and avoidance of anticipated physical harm occurs in PTSD. Excessive worry and extreme efforts to prepare in order to prevent future catastrophe characterizes GAD. Many theories conceptualize depression as lack of reward in both behavior and in cognition or attention.
Understanding Gray’s BAS/BIS systems can be a framework for therapy to work with the degrees client seek pleasure and avoid pain. How much is a client inhibiting their lives by inhibiting emotional expression? How hard do they work to avoid what they think will only be painful? And how much does that hold them in negative patterns and negative emotion or mood states? And how much does that restrict their ability to be present, curious, and follow opportunities in social or occupational life? Or live in line with their values?
And what follows: How do we build specific skills to help them deal with their stress/emotions in order to be able to be open to and find more rewarding things they value? Or even find reward and efficacy in tackling and overcoming difficulties they experience? For some other clients, perhaps we help them learn to anticipate negative experiences (e.g., bad relationships) to understand how to avoid them.
Luckily, many evidence-based therapy approaches provide these frameworks and opportunities for clients to learn more effective approaches or inhibition. Those resources and tools help clients become more balanced in how they cope with stressors. And thus, how they actively build lives they want to live.
