Essay On Impulsivity

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Impulsivity is defined as is a multifactorial construct that involves a tendency to act on a whim, displaying behavior characterized by little or no forethought, reflection, or consideration of the consequences. But when it comes to defining it in the field of psychology, it has been observed to be quite difficult obtain a clear definition. According to Cyders (2012) as well as Verdejo-Garcia (2010), impulsivity is simply defined as behavior that is performed without initially thinking about the consequences that could arise from it. It clearly shows that humans have the vulnerability of having impulses disrupt clear plans which they would have set for themselves. When something does not go right, it can be said that impulsivity has taken over thus the inability of thinking before doing something. In the field …show more content…

In a general sense, self-report measures tend to have a high reliability score due seen from the fact that if the same participant is given the same test at two different time periods, the chances are the scores would be similar if not the same. But it can be clearly noted that this is not the case in terms of impulsivity testing. One of the most highly used self-report measures for impulsivity is the Barrat Impulsivity Scale (BIS). Even though it is very highly used as well as accessible, many studies have found that the BIS is of low validity as well as reliability due to the number of revisions that it has had to undergo. In addition to that, the validity in general of self-report measures is also known to be very low especially the ecological validity which measures how valid a particular self-report measure will be in comparison to real life scenarios. However, the face validity of the self-report measure is observed to be on the higher end of the spectrum due to the clear understanding between participant and researcher. Unfortunately, there are also clear downsides to