Impulsivity is a stable, measurable, and predictive psychological trait

Abstract

Impulsivity is a personality construct frequently employed to explain and predict important human behaviors. Major inconsistencies in its definition and measurement, however, have led some researchers to call for an outright rejection of impulsivity as a psychological construct. We address this highly unsatisfactory state with a large-scale, preregistered study ( N = 1,676) in which each participant completed 48 measures of impulsivity derived from 10 self-report scales and 10 behavioral tasks and reported frequencies of seven impulsivity-related behaviors (e.g., impulsive buying and social media usage); a subsample ( N = 196) then completed a retest session 3 mo later. We found that correlations between self-report measures were substantially higher than those between behavioral tasks and between self-report measures and behavioral tasks. Bifactor analysis of these measures exacted one general factor of impulsivity I , akin to the general intelligence factor g , and six specific factors. Factor I was related mainly to self-report measures, had high test–retest reliability, and could predict impulsivity-related behaviors better than existing measures. We further developed a scale named the adjustable impulsivity scale (AIMS) to measure I . AIMS possesses excellent psychometric properties that are largely retained in shorter versions and could predict impulsivity-related behaviors equally well as I . These findings collectively support impulsivity as a stable, measurable, and predictive trait, indicating that it may be too early to reject it as a valid and useful psychological construct. The bifactorial structure of impulsivity and AIMS, meanwhile, significantly advance the conceptualization and measurement of construct impulsivity.