Bis/Bas Profiles and Psychological Resilience: Differential Associations Across Three Dimensions Relevant to Stress Adaptation and Mental Well-Being

Psychological resilience is a component of mental health and well-being, yet the motivational mechanisms underlying its distinct dimensions remain insufficiently understood. This study examined whether the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) and the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) predict three forms of psychological resilience: engineering resilience, ecological resilience, and adaptive capacity. Data were collected in a two-wave online survey of 657 Polish adults from the general population. BIS/BAS were assessed using the BIS/BAS scales, and resilience was measured with the EEA Resilience Scale. Multiple regression and commonality analyses were conducted to examine the unique and shared contributions of motivational systems to resilience dimensions. Ecological resilience was positively predicted by BAS-Drive and BAS-Sensitivity to Reward, and negatively by BIS. Engineering resilience was primarily associated with lower BIS activation. Adaptive capacity was positively related to BAS-Pleasure Seeking and BAS-Sensitivity to Reward and negatively related to BIS. Commonality analysis further showed that BIS accounted for the largest share of variance in engineering resilience, whereas BAS-Drive and BAS-Sensitivity to Reward contributed most strongly to ecological resilience, and BAS-Pleasure Seeking to adaptive capacity. These findings suggest that psychological resilience is not a unitary construct, but is differentially associated with threat sensitivity and reward-related motivational tendencies, with implications for understanding stress adaptation and promoting mental health.