Negative urgency and risky sexual behaviors: A clarification of the relationship between impulsivity and risky sexual behavior

How does impulsivity relate to risky sexual behavior? Whereas some research has attempted to answer this question in terms of global impulsivity, past research has demonstrated the need to conceptualize impulsivity as a multifaceted trait (Whiteside & Lynam, 2001). Research has been mixed as to which facets of impulsivity predict risky sexual behavior. The major aim of this project was to further the understanding between the five facets of impulsivity (positive urgency, negative urgency, lack of premeditation, sensation-seeking, and lack of perseverance) and risky sexual behavior. This study used a longitudinal design and showed that risky sex was highest among people who act rashly on the basis of negative emotion (negative urgency) and who crave novel, exciting situations (sensation seeking). These findings add to a growing body of literature on the importance of different facets of impulsivity in predicting risky sexual behavior. 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Sex is an exciting, but sometimes risky behavior. Who is most prone to engage in risky sexual behavior? Current research suggests that personality traits, such as impulsivity, are one piece of this puzzle (Sher & Trull, 1994). Whereas some people might engage in risky sex because they crave excitement, others may engage in risky sex when they are overwhelmed with negative emotion. We propose that impulsivity should be broken down into individual facets (Cyders & Smith, 2008; Whiteside & Lynam, 2001) when exploring the link between impulsivity and risky sexual behavior. Various research projects have shown a relationship between all five of these facets and risky sexual behavior. For example, one line of research showed that people engage in more risky sexual behavior if they are the kind of people who act rashly when they are especially happy (Zapolski, Cyders, & Smith, 2009). People also make irrational decisions when experiencing strong negative emotions (Jackson, 1984; Wallace, Newman, & Bachorowski, 1991). But there is not a clear consensus regarding the relationship between separate facets of impulsivity and risky sexual behavior. This project aims to resolve these inconsistencies in the literature by investigating how the separate facets of impulsivity predict risky sexual behaviors. Our hypothesis is that people who are prone to making rash decisions on the basis of strong negative emotions and people who desire novel and exciting activities will engage in heightened levels of risky sexual behaviors. 1. Impulsivity Humans, unlike many non-human animals, have a remarkably sophisticated ability to control their impulses. Yet, people frequently fail to adequately control their impulses. Perhaps as a result, impulsivity has received considerable theoretical and empirical attention throughout the history of psychology. To resolve some of the dispute of how to define impulsivity, Whiteside and Lynam (2001) factor analyzed several widely used self-report measures of impulsivity in order to decipher the factor structure of this broad construct. Their analysis yielded four separate facets of impulsivity: sensation seeking, urgency, perseverance, and premeditation. Sensation seeking refers to a tendency to engage in exciting and arousing activities. Urgency is defined as a tendency to make rash decisions when one is experiencing intense affect. (Lack of) perseverance represents a person who has difficulty following a task through from beginning to end. (Lack of) premeditation indicates a lack of forethought and planning skills. This work laid the groundwork for considering impulsivity as a multifaceted, as opposed to a unitary, construct. Because people may act rashly on the basis of different types of emotion, recent research demonstrated the utility of splitting urgency into both positive and negative facets (Cyders & Smith, 2008). Whereas positive urgency refers to making rash decisions while experiencing acute positive affect, negative urgency refers to making rash decisions while experiencing acute negative affect. Indeed, positive and negative urgency predict different types of risky behavior (Cyders & Smith, 2008). For example, negative urgency is linked to drinking to cope (Anestis, Selby, & Joiner, 2007), whereas positive urgency is linked to drinking quantity and 0191-8869/$ see front matter 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2011.06.004 q This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 585 943 5796; fax: +1 859 323 1979. E-mail address: [email protected] (T. Deckman). Personality and Individual Differences 51 (2011) 674–678