The Effect Of College Students' Reinforcement Sensitivity And Feedback On Risk Decision-making

Decision making played an important role in individual life, and as an important and common kind of risk situation, risk decision-making had been the focus and hot spot of psychology research and economics research. As a kind of personality type based on physiological mechanism, since the beginning of reinforcement sensitivity personality, researchers had paid more attention to the relationship between the personality and different kinds of behavior problems and emotional problems, paid less attention to the effect which the personality had on risk decision-making. Two experiments were used to explore whether reinforcement sensitivity personality which was based on the neural mechanism had effect on the individual risk decision-making in different feedback situation and that the BAS and the BIS are joint subsystems or Separable subsystems. Researcher applied the BAS/BIS Scales to assess the reward sensitivity(BAS) and the punishment sensitivity(BIS) in the undergraduate and graduate students, and then chose the extreme BAS and the extreme BIS students to participate in two experiments.Experiment1 made the different BAS and different BIS person finish the original GDT and the modified GDT to investigate the effect of reward sensitivity, punishment sensitivity on individual risk decision-making net score in different risk decision-making situations with or without feedback. The experiment drew the following conclusions:(1) In the original GDT and the modified GDT, the reward sensitivity and punishment sensitivity had significant interaction effect on risk decision-making net score. The individual with low BAS and high BIS had the highest risk decision-making net score and their choices were the most secure among all experimental subjects. The individual with high BAS and high BIS had the lowest risk decision-making net score and their choices were the most adventurous among all experimental subjects. The behavioral approach system and behavior inhibition system were the joint subsystems. The reward sensitivity and punishment sensitivity had no significant interaction effect on the number of the most risky choices.(2) The feedback had no significant main effect on risk decision-making net score and the number of the most risky choices.(3) The number of single choice of people with high BAS is more than people with low BAS.Experiment2 made the different BAS and different BIS person finish the variant GDT which provided different feedback type, such as the reward feedback, the punishment feedback, and the neutral feedback to explore the effect of reward sensitivity, punishment sensitivity on the outcome of risk decision-making in different feedback type. The experiment drew the following conclusions:(1) In different feedback type, the reward sensitivity and punishment sensitivity had significant interaction effect on the outcome of risk decision-making. The outcome of risk decision-making of the person with low BAS and high BIS was the highest, their choices were the most secure among all experimental subjects. The outcome of risk decision-making of the person with high BAS and high BIS was the lowest, their choices were the most adventurous among all experimental subjects. The behavioral approach system and behavior inhibition system were the joint subsystems.(2) The feedback type had significant main effect on the outcome of risk decision-making. In reward feedback type, risk decision-making of all experimental subjects were prone to adventurous, and in punishment feedback type, risk decision-making of all experimental subjects were prone to secure.Through these two experiments, the study concluded that reinforcement sensitivity personality has the same effect on all individuals on different feedback situations, individuals with low BAS and high BIS tended to be most secure and individuals with high BAS and high BIS tended to be most adventurous. The behavioral approach system and behavior inhibition system were the joint subsystems.