Impulsiveness

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The ECPH Encyclopedia of Psychology
  • 5 Accesses

Impulsiveness is an individual’s tendency to respond to an internal or external stimuli. The earliest systematic study of impulsiveness can trace back to 1959, when British scholar Ernest Barratt described it as a concept with three dimensions: acting on immediate urges or impulses (Motor Impulsiveness), not focusing on what is at hand (Attentional Impulsiveness), and acting without careful preparation and adequately thinking (Lack of Planning). Later British psychologist Hans Eysenck decomposes the construct of general impulsiveness into four sub-factors: narrow impulsivity, risk-taking, non-planning, and liveliness. Eysenck’s study further finds that there is a correlation between impulsiveness and the major personality dimensions. For example, general impulsiveness is highly correlated with extroversion (E) and psychoticism (P), while narrow impulsiveness is positively correlated with the neuroticism (N) and psychoticism (P).

Impulsiveness is generally regarded as a personality...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Further Reading

  1. Luo D-H et al (2015) Criminal psychology. China University of Political Science and Law Press, Bei**g

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2024 Encyclopedia of China Publishing House

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Hongli, Z. (2024). Impulsiveness. In: The ECPH Encyclopedia of Psychology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-6000-2_79-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-6000-2_79-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-99-6000-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-99-6000-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Navigation