Impulsiveness and Venturesomeness: Their Position in a Dimensional System of Personality Description

Abstract

A 63-item questionnaire was constructed for the measurement of three primary personality traits; impulsiveness, venturesomeness, and empathy. This questionnaire, together with the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire which measures personality dimensions Psychoticism, Neuroticism, and Extraversion, was administered to 402 male and 787 female adult subjects. Factor analysis of the questionnaire resulted in three factors similar to those postulated, and made possible the construction of scales for their reliable measurement. These scales were then located in the three-dimensional space created by the three higher-order factors Psychoticism, Extraversion, and Neuroticism, and it was found that Venturesomeness and Impulsiveness correlated positively with Psychoticism and Extraversion, but while Venturesomeness correlated negatively with Neuroticism, Impulsiveness correlated positively with Neuroticism. Empathy only correlated with Neuroticism (positively). The three primaries were largely independent of each other. Men were higher on Venturesomeness and lower on Empathy; there were no sex differences on Impulsiveness. A discussion is given of the psychological meaning of such factors as those here reported.