Impulsivity
Impulsivity (or impulsiveness) is a personality trait characterized by the inclination of an individual to initiate behavior without adequate forethought as to the consequences of their actions, acting on the spur of the moment. Eysenck and Eysenck related impulsivity to risk-taking, lack of planning, and making up one's mind quickly (Baratt, 1993). Impulsivity has been shown to be a major component of various neuropsychiatric disorders such as ADHD, substance abuse disorders and bipolar disorder. Impulsivity has been shown to have a genetic component and may be inheritable. Abnormal patterns of impulsivity may also be an acquired trait as a result of various neurodegenerative diseases, traumatic brain injury (TBI), hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, intrauterine hypoxia, bacterial or viral infections or neurotoxicity as a result of chemical exposure. The orbitofrontal cortex and right inferior frontal gyrus have been shown to play a part in impulse control.[1][2][3]
As a personality trait, impulsivity is part of normal behavior as it contributes to adaptive functioning. To do something and not be aware, especially for young children, is relatively common. Recent psychological research has suggested that there are various facets of impulsivity.[4] Some researchers have proposed a 3-factor model according to impulsivity; attentional ("getting easily bored"), motor ("going into action") and cognitive ("inability to plan") factors. Recent theories[5] have suggested five separate aspects of impulsivity:[6]
- Positive urgency; the tendency to act rashly while in a positive mood.
- Negative urgency; the tendency to act rashly while in a negative mood.
- Lack of premeditation; the inability to anticipate the future consequences of actions.
- Lack of perseverance; the inability to follow through on a task
- Sensation-seeking; the experience of positive feelings towards risky actions.
[edit] Psychometric tests for impulsivity
- Lifetime History of Impulsive Behaviors; a self-report questionnaire of the lifetime prevalence of impulsive behavior.[7]
- UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale (Whiteside and Lynam; 2001); a 45-item self-report questionnaire which distinguishes four facets of impulsivity: urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance, and sensation-seeking. It is scored on a 4-point scale from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree.[8]
- UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale (UPPS-P); a revised version of the UPPS is a 59-item self-report questionnaire that adds an additional factor, "positive urgency".[9]
- UPPS-R Interview (UPPS-R); Semi-structured interview format for UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale.
- Barratt Impulsiveness Scale; a 30-item self-report questionnaire.[10]
[edit] References
- ^ Corsini, Raymond Joseph, 1999, The Dictionary of Psychology, Psychology Press, ISBN 158391028X, p. 476.
- ^ Berlin, HA; Rolls, ET; Kischka, U (2004). "Impulsivity, time perception, emotion and reinforcement sensitivity in patients with orbitofrontal cortex lesions". Brain : a journal of neurology 127 (Pt 5): 1108–26. doi:10.1093/brain/awh135. PMID 14985269.
- ^ Salmond, CH; Menon, DK; Chatfield, DA; Pickard, JD; Sahakian, BJ (2005). "Deficits in decision-making in head injury survivors". Journal of neurotrauma 22 (6): 613–22. doi:10.1089/neu.2005.22.613. PMID 15941371.
- ^ Varieties of impulsivity, J.L. Evenden, Psychopharmacology, 1999, Volume 146, Number 4.
- ^ Whiteside SP, Lynam DR. The Five Factor Model and impulsivity: Using a structural model of personality to understand impulsivity. Pers Indiv Differ 2001; 30: 669-89.
- ^ Emotion-based Dispositions to Rash Action: Positive and Negative Urgency Melissa A. Cyders and Gregory T. Smith. Article
- ^ Schmidt, CA; Fallon, AE; Coccaro, EF (2004). "Assessment of behavioral and cognitive impulsivity: development and validation of the Lifetime History of Impulsive Behaviors Interview". Psychiatry research 126 (2): 107–21. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2003.12.021. PMID 15123390.
- ^ Whiteside, SP; Lynam, DR (2003). "Understanding the role of impulsivity and externalizing psychopathology in alcohol abuse: application of the UPPS impulsive behavior scale". Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology 11 (3): 210–7. doi:10.1037/1064-1297.11.3.210. PMID 12940500.
- ^ Perales, JC; Verdejo-Garcia, A; Moya, M; Lozano, O; Perez-Garcia, M (2009). "Bright and dark sides of impulsivity: performance of women with high and low trait impulsivity on neuropsychological tasks". Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology 31 (8): 927–44. doi:10.1080/13803390902758793. PMID 19358009.
- ^ Patton, JH; Stanford, MS; Barratt, ES (1995). "Factor structure of the Barratt impulsiveness scale". Journal of clinical psychology 51 (6): 768–74. doi:10.1002/1097-4679(199511)51:6<768::AID-JCLP2270510607>3.0.CO;2-1. PMID 8778124.
Barratt ES (1993). Impulsivity: Integrating cognitive, behavioral, biological and environmental data. In W.G. McCowan, J.L. Johnson, 2194 Afr. J. Bus. Manage. and M.B. Shure (Eds.), The impulsive client: Theory, research, and treatment. Washington, DC: Am. Psychol. Assoc., pp. 39–56.
[edit] See also
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