Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-mzp66 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-09T16:45:25.754Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Multidimensional assessment of impulsivity-related measures in relation to externalizing behaviors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2018

Kasey G. Creswell ,
Aidan G. C. Wright ,
Janine D. Flory ,
Carillon J. Skrzynski  and
Stephen B. Manuck
Kasey G. Creswell*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Aidan G. C. Wright
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Janine D. Flory
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA James J Peters VAMC, New York, NY, USA
Carillon J. Skrzynski
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Stephen B. Manuck
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
*
Author for correspondence: Kasey Creswell, E-mail: kasey@andrew.cmu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Trait impulsivity is thought to play a key role in predicting behaviors on the externalizing spectrum, such as drug and alcohol use and aggression. Research suggests that impulsivity may not be a unitary construct, but rather multidimensional in nature with dimensions varying across self-report assessments and laboratory behavioral tasks. Few studies with large samples have included a range of impulsivity-related measures and assessed several externalizing behaviors to clarify the predictive validity of these assessments on important life outcomes.

Methods

Community adults (N = 1295) between the ages of 30 and 54 completed a multidimensional assessment of impulsivity-related traits (including 54 self-report scales of personality traits implicated in impulsive behaviors, and four behavioral tasks purporting to assess a construct similar to impulsivity) and reported on five externalizing behavioral outcomes (i.e. drug, alcohol, and cigarette use, and physical and verbal aggression). We ran an exploratory factor analysis on the trait scales, and then a structural equation model predicting the externalizing behaviors from the three higher-order personality factors (i.e. Disinhibition v. Constraint/Conscientiousness, Neuroticism/Negative Emotionality, and Extraversion/Positive Emotionality) and the four behavioral tasks.

Results

Relations between the self-report factors and behavioral tasks were small or nonexistent. Associations between the self-report factors and the externalizing outcomes were generally medium to large, but relationships between the behavioral tasks and externalizing outcomes were either nonexistent or small.

Conclusions

These results partially replicate and extend recent meta-analytic findings reported by Sharma et al. (2014) to further clarify the predictive validity of impulsivity-related trait scales and laboratory behavioral tasks on externalizing behaviors.

Keywords

impulsivitydisinhibitiontrait-behavior linkself-reportbehavioral measuresexternalizing behaviors
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 49 , Issue 10 , July 2019 , pp. 1678 - 1690
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bari, A and Robbins, TW (2013) Inhibition and impulsivity: behavioral and neural basis of response control. Progress in Neurobiology 108, 44–79.Google Scholar
Beatty, WW, Katzung, VM, Moreland, VJ and Nixon, SJ (1995) Neuropsychological performance of recently abstinent alcoholics and cocaine abusers. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 37, 247–253.Google Scholar
Bechara, A (2007) Iowa Gambling Task Professional Manual. Lutz, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.Google Scholar
Bechara, A, Damasio, AR, Damasio, H and Anderson, SW (1994) Insensitivity to future consequences following damage to human prefrontal cortex. Cognition 50, 7–15.Google Scholar
Businelle, MS, Kendzor, DE, Rash, CJ, Patterson, SM, Coffey, SF and Copeland, AL (2009) Heavy smokers perform more poorly than nonsmokers on a simulated task of gambling. Substance Use & Misuse 44, 905–914.Google Scholar
Buss, AH and Perry, M (1992) The aggression questionnaire. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 63, 452–459.Google Scholar
Carver, CS and White, TL (1994) Behavioral inhibition, behavioral activation, and affective responses to impending reward and punishment: the BIS/BAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 67, 319–333.Google Scholar
Clark, LA (1993) Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (SNAP). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
Clark, LA and Watson, D (2008) Temperament: an organizing paradigm for trait psychology. In John, OP, Robins, RW and Perkvin, LA (eds), Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research. New York: Guilford Press, pp. 265–286.Google Scholar
Cloninger, CR, Przybeck, TR and Svrakic, DM (1991) The tridimensional personality questionnaire: U.S. normative data. Psychological Reports 69, 1047–1057.Google Scholar
Cloninger, CR, Svrakic, DM and Przybeck, TR (1993) A psychobiological model of temperament and character. Archives of General Psychiatry 50, 975–990.Google Scholar
Coccaro, EF, Berman, ME and Kavoussi, RJ (1997) Assessment of life history of aggression: development and psychometric characteristics. Psychiatry Research 73, 147–157.Google Scholar
Coffey, SF, Gudleski, GD, Saladin, ME and Brady, KT (2003) Impulsivity and rapid discounting of delayed hypothetical rewards in cocaine-dependent individuals. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology 11, 18–25.Google Scholar
Costa, PT and McCrae, RR (1992) Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) Professional Manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.Google Scholar
Cox, WM, Fadardi, JS and Pothos, EM (2006) The addiction-stroop test: theoretical considerations and procedural recommendations. Psychological Bulletin 132, 443.Google Scholar
Crean, JP, de Wit, H and Richards, JB (2000) Reward discounting as a measure of impulsive behavior in a psychiatric outpatient population. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology 8, 155–162.Google Scholar
Creswell, KG, Chung, T, Wright, AGC, Black, JJ, Clark, DB and Martin, CS (2015) Personality, negative affect coping, and drinking alone: a structural equation modeling approach to examine correlates of adolescent solitary drinking. Addiction 110, 775–783.Google Scholar
Creswell, KG, Bachrach, RL, Wright, AGC, Pinto, A and Ansell, E (2016) Predicting problematic alcohol use with the DSM-5 alternative model of personality pathology. Personality Disorders: Treatment, Research, and Theory 7, 103–111.Google Scholar
Cyders, MA and Coskunpinar, A (2011) Measurement of constructs using self-report and behavioral lab tasks: is there overlap in nomothetic span and construct representation for impulsivity? Clinical Psychology Review 31, 965–982.Google Scholar
Cyders, MA and Coskunpinar, A (2012) The relationship between self-report and lab task conceptualizations of impulsivity. Journal of Research in Personality 46, 121–124.Google Scholar
Cyders, MA and Smith, GT (2007) Mood-based rash action and its components: positive and negative urgency. Personality and Individual Differences 43, 839–850.Google Scholar
Cyders, MA, Smith, GT, Spillane, NS, Fischer, S, Annus, AM and Peterson, C (2007) Integration of impulsivity and positive mood to predict risky behavior: development and validation of a measure of positive urgency. Psychological Assessment 19, 107–118.Google Scholar
de Wit, H, Flory, JD, Acheson, A, McCloskey, M and Manuck, SB (2007) IQ and nonplanning impulsivity are independently associated with delay discounting in middle-aged adults. Personality and Individual Differences 42, 111–121.Google Scholar
Depue, RA and Collins, PF (1999) Neurobiology of the structure of personality: dopamine, facilitation of incentive motivation, and extraversion. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22, 491–517.Google Scholar
DeYoung, CG (2010) Impulsivity as a personality trait. In Vohs, KD and Baumeister, RF (eds), Handbook of Self-Regulation: Research, Theory, and Applications. New York, NY: Guilford Press, pp. 485–502.Google Scholar
Dick, DM, Smith, G, Olausson, P, Mitchell, SH, Leeman, RF, O'Malley, SS and Sher, K (2010) Understanding the construct of impulsivity and its relationship to alcohol use disorders. Addiction Biology 15, 217–226.Google Scholar
Dougherty, DM, Bjork, JM, Huckabee, HC, Moeller, FG and Swann, AC (1999) Laboratory measures of aggression and impulsivity in women with borderline personality disorder. Psychiatry Research 85, 315–326.Google Scholar
Dougherty, DM, Mathias, CW, Marsh, DM and Jagar, AA (2005) Laboratory behavioral measures of impulsivity. Behavior Research Methods 37, 82–90.Google Scholar
Eaton, NR, Krueger, RF, Keyes, KM, Skodol, AE, Markon, KE, Grant, BF and Hasin, DS (2011) Borderline personality disorder co-morbidity: relationship to the internalizing-externalizing structure of common mental disorders. Psychological Medicine 41, 1041–1050.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H and Eysenck, MW (1985) Personality and Individual Differences: A Natural Science Approach. New York, NY: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Eysenck, SBG and Eysenck, HJ (1977) The place of impulsiveness in a dimensional system of personality. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 16, 57–68.Google Scholar
First, M, Spitzer, R, Gibbon, M and Williams, J (2002) Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR Axis I Disorders, Research Version, Non-Patient Edition (SCID-I/NP). New York, NY: Biometrics Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute.Google Scholar
Flory, JD, Harvey, PD, Mitropoulou, V, New, AS, Silverman, JM, Siever, LJ and Manuck, SB (2006) Dispositional impulsivity in normal and abnormal samples. Journal of Psychiatric Research 40, 438–447.Google Scholar
Friedman, NP, Miyake, A, Robinson, JL and Hewitt, JK (2011) Developmental trajectories in toddlers’ self-restraint predict individual differences in executive functions 14 years later: a behavioral genetic analysis. Developmental Psychology 47, 1410–1430.Google Scholar
Golden, JC (1978) Stroop Color and Word Test. Chicago, IL: Stoelting Company.Google Scholar
Grant, B, Stinson, F, Dawson, D, Chou, S, Ruan, W and Pickering, R (2006) Co-occurrence of 12-month alcohol and drug use disorders and personality disorders in the United States: results from the national epidemiologic survey on alcohol and related conditions. Alcohol Research & Health 29, 121–130.Google Scholar
Halder, I, Marsland, AL, Cheong, J, Muldoon, MF, Ferrell, RE and Manuck, SB (2010) Polymorphisms in the CRP gene moderate an association between depressive symptoms and circulating levels of C-reactive protein. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity 24, 160–167.Google Scholar
Harmsen, H, Bischof, G, Brooks, A, Hohagen, F and Rumpf, HJ (2006) The relationship between impaired decision-making, sensation seeking and readiness to change in cigarette smokers. Addictive Behaviors 31, 581–592.Google Scholar
Heath, AC, Cloninger, CR and Martin, NG (1994) Testing a model for the genetic structure of personality: a comparison of the personality systems of Cloninger and Eysenck. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 66, 762–775.Google Scholar
Heaton, KR, Chelune, GJ, Talley, JL, Kay, GG and Curtiss, G (1993) Wisconsin Card Sorting Test Manual: Revised and Expanded. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.Google Scholar
Hoffman, WF, Moore, M, Templin, R, McFarland, B, Hitzemann, RJ and Mitchell, SH (2006) Neuropsychological function and delay discounting in methamphetamine-dependent individuals. Psychopharmacology 188, 162–170.Google Scholar
Jahng, S, Trull, TJ, Wood, PK, Tragesser, SL, Tomko, R, Grant, JD, Bucholz, KK and Sher, KJ (2011) Distinguishing general and specific personality disorder features and implications for substance dependence comorbidity. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 120, 656–669.Google Scholar
Johnson, SL, Tharp, JA, Peckham, AD, Carver, CS and Haase, CM (2017) A path model of different forms of impulsivity with externalizing and internalizing psychopathology: towards greater specificity. British Journal of Clinical Psychology 56, 235–252.Google Scholar
Kirby, KN, Petry, NM and Bickel, WK (1999) Heroin addicts have higher discount rates for delayed rewards than non-drug-using control. Journal of Experimental Psychology 128, 78–87.Google Scholar
Kotov, R, Krueger, RF, Watson, D, Achenbach, TM, Althoff, RR, Bagby, RM, Brown, TA, Carpenter, WT, Caspi, A, Clark, LA and Eaton, NR (2017) The hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology (HiTOP): a dimensional alternative to traditional nosologies. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 126, 454–477.Google Scholar
Krueger, RF, Hicks, BM, Patrick, CJ, Carlson, SR, Iacono, WG and McGue, M (2002) Etiologic connections among substance dependence, antisocial behavior, and personality: modeling the externalizing spectrum. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 111, 411–424.Google Scholar
Loeber, R, Menting, B, Lynam, DR, Moffitt, TE, Stouthamer-Loeber, M, Stallings, R, Farrington, DP and Pardini, D (2012) Findings from the Pittsburgh youth study: cognitive impulsivity and intelligence as predictors of the age-crime curve. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 51, 1136–1149.Google Scholar
Logan, GD (1994) On the ability to inhibit thought and action: a users’ guide to the stop signal paradigm. In Dagenbach, D and Carr, TH (eds), Inhibitory Processes in Attention, Memory, and Language. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, pp. 189–239.Google Scholar
Luyten, P and Blatt, SJ (2013) Interpersonal relatedness and self-definition in normal and disrupted personality development: retrospect and prospect. American Psychologist 68, 172–183.Google Scholar
Lynam, DR, Smith, GT, Whiteside, SP and Cyders, MA (2006) The UPPS-P: Assessing Five Personality Pathways to Impulsive Behavior. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University.Google Scholar
Manuck, SB, Flory, JD, McCaffery, JM, Matthews, KA, Mann, JJ and Muldoon, MF (1998) Aggression, impulsivity, and central nervous system serotonergic responsivity in a nonpatient sample. Neuropsychopharmacology 19, 287–299.Google Scholar
Markon, KE, Krueger, RF and Watson, D (2005) Delineating the structure of normal and abnormal personality: an integrative hierarchical approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 88, 139–157.Google Scholar
Marsland, AL, Gianaros, PJ, Kuan, DCH, Sheu, LK, Krajina, K and Manuck, SB (2015) Brain morphology links systemic inflammation to cognitive function in midlife adults. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity 48, 195–204.Google Scholar
McCloskey, MS, New, AS, Siever, LJ, Goodman, M, Koenigsberg, HW, Flory, JD and Coccaro, EF (2009) Evaluation of behavioral impulsivity and aggression tasks as endophenotypes for borderline personality disorder. Journal of Psychiatric Research 43, 1036–1048.Google Scholar
Mitchell, SH (1999) Measures of impulsivity in cigarette smokers and non-smokers. Psychopharmacology 146, 455–464.Google Scholar
Miyake, A and Friedman, NP (2012) The nature and organization of individual differences in executive functions: four general conclusions. Current Directions in Psychological Science 21, 8–14.Google Scholar
Miyake, A, Friedman, NP, Emerson, MJ, Witzki, AH and Howerter, A (2000) The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex “Frontal Lobe” tasks: a latent variable analysis. Cognitive Psychology 41, 49–100.Google Scholar
Morey, LC, Hopwood, CJ, Markowitz, JC, Gunderson, JG, Grilo, CM, McGlashan, TH, Shea, MT, Yen, S, Sanislow, CA, Ansell, EB and Skodol, AE (2012) Comparison of alternative models for personality disorders, II: 6-, 8- and 10-year follow-up. Psychological Medicine 42, 1705–1713.Google Scholar
Muthén, LK and Muthén, BO (1998–2012) Mplus User's Guide, 7th edn. Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.Google Scholar
Nigg, JT (2000) On inhibition/disinhibition in developmental psychopathology: views from cognitive and personality psychology and a working inhibition taxonomy. Psychological Bulletin 126, 220–246.Google Scholar
Patrick, CJ, Curtin, JJ and Tellegen, A (2002) Development and validation of a brief form of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire. Psychological Assessment 14, 150–163.Google Scholar
Patton, JH, Stanford, MS and Barratt, ES (1995) Factor structure of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology 51, 768–774.Google Scholar
Perkins, ER, Yancey, JR, Drislane, LE, Venables, NC, Balsis, S and Patrick, CJ (2017) Methodological issues in the use of individual brain measures to index trait liabilities: the example of noise-probe P3. International Journal of Psychophysiology 111, 145–155.Google Scholar
Pilkonis, PA, Kim, Y, Proietti, JM and Barkham, M (1996) Scales for personality disorders developed from the inventory of interpersonal problems. Journal of Personality Disorders 10, 355–369.Google Scholar
Reynolds, B, Ortengren, A, Richards, JB and de Wit, H (2006) Dimensions of impulsive behavior: personality and behavioral measures. Personality and Individual Differences 40, 305–315.Google Scholar
Rose, SA, Feldman, JF and Jankowski, JJ (2011) Modeling a cascade of effects: the role of speed and executive functioning in preterm/full-term differences in academic achievement. Developmental Science 14, 1161–1175.Google Scholar
Rosselli, M and Ardila, A (1996) Cognitive effects of cocaine and polydrug abuse. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology 18, 122–135.Google Scholar
Sharma, L, Kohl, K, Morgan, TA and Clark, LA (2013) “Impulsivity”: relations between self-report and behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 104, 559.Google Scholar
Sharma, L, Markon, KE and Clark, LA (2014) Toward a theory of distinct types of “impulsive” behaviors: a meta-analysis of self-report and behavioral measures. Psychological Bulletin 140, 374–408.Google Scholar
Sher, KJ and Trull, TJ (1994) Personality and disinhibitory psychopathology: alcoholism and antisocial personality disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 103, 92–102.Google Scholar
Slutske, WS, Heath, AC, Madden, PAF, Bucholz, KK, Statham, DJ and Martin, NG (2002) Personality and the genetic risk for alcohol dependence. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 111, 124–133.Google Scholar
Smith, GT, Fischer, S, Cyders, MA, Annus, AM, Spillane, NS and McCarthy, DM (2007) On the validity and utility of discriminating among impulsivity-like traits. Assessment 14, 155–170.Google Scholar
Spielberger, CD (1988) Manual for the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.Google Scholar
Sweitzer, MM, Donny, EC, Dierker, LC, Flory, JD and Manuck, SB (2008) Delay discounting and smoking: association with the Fagerström test for Nicotine dependence but not cigarettes smoked per day. Nicotine & Tobacco Research 10, 1571–1575.Google Scholar
Tellegen, A and Waller, NG (2008) Exploring personality through test construction: development of the multidimensional personality questionnaire. In Boyle, GJ, Matthews, G and Saklofske, DH (eds), Personality Measurement and Testing: The SAGE Handbook of Personality Theory and Assessment. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, pp. 261–292.Google Scholar
VanderBroek-Stice, L, Stojek, MK, Beach, SR, vanDellen, MR and MacKillop, J (2017) Multidimensional assessment of impulsivity in relation to obesity and food addiction. Appetite 112, 59–68.Google Scholar
Vaughan, L and Giovanello, K (2010) Executive function in daily life: age-related influences of executive processes on instrumental activities of daily living. Psychology and Aging 25, 343–355.Google Scholar
Venables, NC, Foell, J, Yancey, JR, Kane, MJ, Engle, RW and Patrick, CJ (2018) Quantifying inhibitory control as externalizing proneness: a cross-domain model. Clinical Psychological Science 6, 561–580.Google Scholar
Verdejo-García, AJ, Perales, JC and Pérez-García, M (2007) Cognitive impulsivity in cocaine and heroin polysubstance abusers. Addictive Behaviors 32, 950–966.Google Scholar
Watson, D and Clark, LA (1993) Behavioral disinhibition versus constraint: a dispositional perspective. In Wegner, DM and Pennebaker, JW (eds), Handbook of Mental Control. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, pp. 506–527.Google Scholar
White, JL, Moffitt, TE, Caspi, A, Bartusch, DJ, Needles, DJ and Stouthamer-Loeber, M (1994) Measuring impulsivity and examining its relationship to delinquency. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 103, 192–205.Google Scholar
Whiteside, SP and Lynam, DR (2001) The five factor model and impulsivity: using a structural model of personality to understand impulsivity. Personality and Individual Differences 30, 669–689.Google Scholar
Wright, AGC and Simms, LJ (2014) On the structure of personality disorder traits: conjoint analyses of the CAT-PD, PID-5, and NEO-PI-3 trait models. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment 5, 43–54.Google Scholar
Wright, AGC and Simms, LJ (2015) A metastructural model of mental disorders and pathological personality traits. Psychological Medicine 45, 2309–2319.Google Scholar
Young, SE, Stallings, MC, Corley, RP, Krauter, KS and Hewitt, JK (2000) Genetic and environmental influences on behavioral disinhibition. American Journal of Medical Genetics 96, 684–695.Google Scholar
Young, SE, Friedman, NP, Miyake, A, Willcutt, EG, Corley, RP, Haberstick, BC and Hewitt, JK (2009) Behavioral disinhibition: liability for externalizing spectrum disorders and its genetic and environmental relation to response inhibition across adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 118, 117.Google Scholar
Zuckerman, M (1994) Impulsive unsocialized sensation seeking: the biological foundations of a basic dimension of personality. In Bates, JE and Wachs, TD (eds), Temperament: Individual Differences at the Interface of Biology and Behavior. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, pp. 219–255.Google Scholar
Zuckerman, M, Kolin, EA, Price, L and Zoob, I (1964) Development of a sensation-seeking scale. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 28, 477.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Creswell et al. supplementary material

Creswell et al. supplementary material 1

Download Creswell et al. supplementary material(File)
File 55.9 KB