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The Relationships between Functional and Dysfunctional Impulsivity and Aggression across Different Samples

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2014

Andreu Vigil-Colet ,
Fabia Morales-Vives  and
Jordi Tous
Andreu Vigil-Colet*
Affiliation:
Universitat Rovira I Virgili (Spain)
Fabia Morales-Vives
Affiliation:
Universitat Rovira I Virgili (Spain)
Jordi Tous
Affiliation:
Universitat Rovira I Virgili (Spain)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be adressed to Andreu Vigil-Colet, CRAMC (Research center for behaviour assessment), Departament de Psicologia, Facultat de C.C. E. E. i Psicologia, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43007 -Tarragona, Spain. E-mail: avc@urv.cat.
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Abstract

E. S. Barratt proposed the term impulsive aggression to define a kind of aggression that is characterized by acting without thinking because of high levels of impulsivity. Previous research using psychometric measures has shown that impulsivity and aggression are related as far as psychometric measures are concerned. Nevertheless, most of the research has been done with samples of university students. Our research tests whether this relationship is stable across different samples; university students, teenagers and workers. Our results show that impulsivity and aggression have a consistent pattern of relationships across these samples, with impulsivity being specially related to emotional and instrumental aspects of aggression. Furthermore, the effects of anger on aggression seem to show a pattern of relationship that depends on age, with a tendency to physical aggression in young people and verbal aggression in adults.

E. S. Barratt ha propuesto el término agresión impulsiva para definir un tipo de agresión que se caracteriza por actuar sin pensar debido a altos niveles de impulsividad. Investigaciones anteriores con medidas psicométricas han mostrado que impulsividad y agresión están relacionadas en lo que a las medidas psicométricas se refiere. Sin embargo, la mayoría de las investigaciones han empleado muestras de estudiantes universitarios. Nuestro trabajo trata de comprobar si esta relación se mantiene en muestras diferentes. Nuestros resultados indican que impulsividad y agresión muestran una pauta de relación consistente across these samples, estando la impulsividad especialmente relacionada con los aspectos emocionales e instrumentales de la agresión. Además, los efectos de la ira sobre la agresión muestran al parecer una pauta de relación dependiente de la edad, encontrándose una tendencia a la agresión física en gente joven y la agresión verbal en adultos.

Keywords

impulsivityimpulsive aggressionangerimpulsividadagresión impulsivaira
Type
Articles
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , November 2008 , pp. 480 - 487
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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