Functional and dysfunctional impulsivity: Personality and cognitive correlates.

Abstract

The 3 studies reported here were designed to clarify the nature of the personality trait of impulsivity. Two types of impulsivity were distinguished. Dysfunctional impulsivity is the tendency to act with less forethought than most people of equal ability when this tendency is a source of difficulty; most previous work on impulsivity appears to have focused on this trait. Functional impulsivity, in contrast, is the tendency to act with relatively little forethought when such a style is optimal. The present work indicates that these two tendencies are not highly correlated and that they bear different relations both to other personality traits and to the manner in which certain basic cognitive processes are executed.

Cites (2)

1. Training impulsive children to talk to themselves: A means of developing self-control.
   Meichenbaum, Donald H., Goodman, Joseph · 1971 · Journal of Abnormal Psychology
2. The interactive effect of personality, time of day, and caffeine: A test of the arousal model.
   Revelle, William, Humphreys, Michael S., Simon, Lisa, Gilliland, Kirby · 1980 · Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Show all 2 references

Cited by (51)

1. The Five Factor Model and impulsivity: using a structural model of personality to understand impulsivity
   Whiteside, Stephen P., Lynam, Donald R. · 2001 · Personality and Individual Differences
2. Empirical, Theoretical, and Practical Advantages of the HEXACO Model of Personality Structure
   Ashton, Michael C., Lee, Kibeom · 2007 · Personality and Social Psychology Review
3. Inhibition and impulsivity: behavioral and neural basis of response control
   Bari, Andrea, Robbins, Trevor W. · 2013 · Progress in Neurobiology
4. Annual Research Review: On the relations among self‐regulation, self‐control, executive functioning, effortful control, cognitive control, impulsivity, risk‐taking, and inhibition for developmental psychopathology
   Nigg, Joel T. · 2017 · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
5. Internet addiction: a systematic review of epidemiological research for the last decade
   Kuss, D., Griffiths, M., Karila, L., Billieux, J. · 2014 · Current Pharmaceutical Design

See all 1,323