Handedness and behavioural inhibition system/behavioural activation system (BIS/BAS) scores: A replication and extension of Wright, Hardie, and Wilson (2009)

Abstract

. (2015). Handedness and behavioural inhibition system/behavioural activation system (BIS/BAS) scores: A replication and extension of Wright, Hardie, and Wilson (2009). Laterality, 20(5), pp. 585-603. doi: 10.1080Laterality, 20(5), pp. 585-603. doi: 10. /1357650X.2015 This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Handedness has been of interest to neuropsychologists for over a century, largely because of its association with asymmetry of hemispheric function (Beaton, 2003; Ocklenburg, Best, Arning, Peterburs & Güntürkün, 2014). In many, probably most, cognitive and behavioural studies lefthanders are excluded with the intention of minimising heterogeneity with respect to the cerebral representation of function or behaviour. Recently, however, a strong plea has been made to include left-handers in these studies as they "represent a substantial portion of the human population and therefore left-handedness falls within the normal range of human diversity" (Willems, Van der Haegen, Fisher & Francks, 2014). If this plea is heeded, then in studies involving left-handers it will be necessary to understand how, if at all, they differ from right-handers (see also Hancock & Bever, 2013). Permanent repository linkPutative cognitive differences between left-and right-handers have long been of interest (see Beaton, 1985;Willems et al., 2014) but differences related to other aspects of behaviour, such as alcohol consumption (Bakan, 1973;London, 1987;1990 but see Denny, 2011, smoking (Harburg, Feldstein & Papsdorf, 1978), sleep duration (Hicks, Pellegrini & Hawkins, 1979) and dream frequency (Schredl, Beaton, Henley-Einion & Blagrove, 2013;2014) have also been reported. Coren (1994) considered that left-and right-handers differ in temperament and personality. One aspect of personality/behaviour that has received considerable attention is anxiety.On the basis of a questionnaire administered to a group of 14-17 year old girls attending a classifying centre at what was then called an "approved" school (i.e. for adolescents with emotional and behavioural difficulties), Orme (1970) found that a greater proportion of 23 left-handers (defined by writing hand) showed high levels of emotional instability as compared with 277 right-handers. This study was criticised by Hicks & Pellegrini (1978) Dillon (1989) reported a significant correlation among 34 male but not 44 female college students between scores on a questionnaire assessing students' worries and scores on a General Laterality Scale. Using the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI), Merkelbach, de Ruiter and Olff (1989) compared the handedness of 77 anxiety disorder patients with handedness in a healthy control 6 group and found no evidence of a relationship between left-handedness and clinically diagnosed anxiety.In a recent study Lyle, Chapman and Hatton (2013) Previously they had found (Wright, Hardie & Wilson, 2009) that left-handers reported themselves to have higher BIS scores than right-hande...

Fractionating negative and positive affectivity in handedness: Insights from the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of personality

“…Using the Carver and White (1994) questionnaire, Wright et al (2009) reported that left-handers had higher BIS scores than right-handers while BAS scores did not differ between the handedness groups, a finding replicated by Hardie and Wright (2014) in an extension of their earlier study. Similar results were obtained by Beaton et al (2015) who also used the Carver and White (1994) questionnaire but a different measure of handedness to that used by Wright and her colleagues.…”

“…We undertook this study in an attempt to clarify the source of the previously reported association between left-handedness and the BIS (Beaton et al, 2015;Wright et al, 2009;Wright & Hardie, 2012;Hardie & Wright, 2014). In particular, we wished to confirm that the relationship holds with improved measures of the constructs proposed by RST and when FFFS is looked at separately rather than (as in Beaton et al, 2015) conflated with BIS scores.…”

“…Their main finding, that non-right-handers had higher BIS scores than right-handers, thus leaves open the possibility that BIS is related to handedness through FFFS/fear rather than BIS/anxiety. However, 13 Wright, see also Hardie & Wright, 2014) differentiated between BIS and FFFS by identifying the two items of the Carver and White (1994) questionnaire that were said to reflect FFFS and they, too, reported similar effects to Beaton et al (2015). This form of psychometric differentiation has significant limitations and much better factors for the FFFS and BIS now exist (e.g., Corr & Cooper, 2016).…”

“…A limitation of the Beaton et al (2015) study was that FFFS scores were not separated from BIS scores. Their main finding, that non-right-handers had higher BIS scores than right-handers, thus leaves open the possibility that BIS is related to handedness through FFFS/fear rather than BIS/anxiety.…”

“…The Carver and White (1994) questionnaire used by Wright and her colleagues and by Beaton et al (2015) was devised at a time when RST emphasised only BIS and BAS; consequently it conflates fear and anxiety. It is now widely recognised, however, that the latter are conceptually and psychometrically separable constructs (Corr, 2011;Gray & McNaughton, 2000;Perkins, Kemp & Corr, 2007; for review see Corr, 2016;Corr & Cooper, 2016).…”