Emotion inductions cause changes in activation levels of the behavioural inhibition and approach systems

Using the Life Inventory Task to induce emotions (fear, anger, and happiness) and Carver and White’s (1994) BIS/BAS questionnaire to measure motivational systems this experiment (N = 305) investigated the effects of emotion inductions on self-reported emotions and motivational systems. Structural equation modeling results validated the Life Inventory Task as an effective emotion induction technique and revealed that experimentally induced emotions predicted BIS/BAS activation. Specifically, happiness and anger, both approach emotions, predicted BAS, while fear, a withdrawal emotion, predicted BIS. Such empirical evidence supported the notion that emotions are associated with motivational systems by their unique action tendencies (withdrawal and approach), not by their valence (negative and positive).