What is impulsiveness? Its causes and effects on behavior

One of the defining characteristics of the human being is that it is an animal endowed with the capacity to reason about its emotional impulses, imposing "reason" as the basis on which their actions are based in the world that unfolds in front of them. to the. This is why we delight in thinking of ourselves as a "rational animal."

With this, a differential line would be drawn with the rest of the creatures that inhabit the earth, often understood (although not always in this way) as slaves. of instinct and the need to survive, feeling ourselves as something independent and different from the fabric that makes up the inherent nature of all living beings.

What is really true, despite this widespread belief, is that we do not always act in a rational or thoughtful way; but on many occasions we allow ourselves to be carried away by the flow of our most primitive instincts. There are even people who, in fact, react this way in almost all situations.

In this article we will address precisely the issue of impulsiveness

, both the way in which it is defined and its possible causes and its neurological roots, since it is of a feature that harbors a certain mystery and that conditions the life of those who present it and their environment.

• Related article: "Impulse Control Disorders: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment"

What is impulsiveness?

Impulsivity is a complex concept, which has tried to be clearly defined many times, but for which there is still no clear consensus. The most common is that a succession of defining features are used, which are presented together in the one from whom they are says that it is impulsive, but that they do not reach the necessary descriptive level to convince the entire community scientific. In this way, attributes such as "impetuous", "thoughtless" or "hasty" would be used.

Another difficulty in defining its nature is found in the fact that this symptom is usually manifested in the context of other mental disorders, and rarely in an isolated way. It is common to appear in the borderline personality disorder (thoughtless behaviors), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (hasty and interruption), pathological gambling (irresistible desire to gamble) or binge eating disorder (voracious and irrepressible).

On the other hand, it is also a risk factor in many other mental health problems; such as drug abuse and/or behavioral disorders during childhood; and it is one of the most important reasons why some people abandon the psychological approach or other forms of intervention. Thus, it appears diluted with many other physical and mental alterations, making it difficult to discriminate those that can be attributed to it from those that really are not.

its facets

Some researchers have tried to carry out classifications of the different ways in which impulsivity can be expressed, in such a way that seems to be defining some degree of agreement regarding three basic dimensions: cognitive (precipitation in the decision-making process), motor (development of an action devoid of any prior process of reflection) and/or unplanned (total absence of consideration of the future when undertaking a action). In any case, there is a risk of very negative consequences for the person or third parties.

Even so, an attempt at conceptualization implies the enumeration of expressions that distinguish it as an independent entity. The most essential ones will be detailed below.

• You may be interested: "Are we rational or emotional beings?"

1. Difficulty delaying reward and seeking immediacy

Impulsivity is characterized by problems stopping impulses, that is, inhibiting behaviors despite some potential negative consequence. This process unfolds before varied appetitive stimuli, considered desirable, despite the fact that the expectation could translate into an increase in the intensity or quantity of the reward to which choose. Prima, therefore, the immediacy in the way of driving multiple aspects of life. It is also one of the common causes of interpersonal violence.

2. Failure to consider options and risks, and lack of planning

Impulsivity is oriented only towards the present moment, so the person who has it does not weigh the consequences of acts on the future. Likewise, she does not manage to make structured plans on how to face an event that precipitates a difficult emotional response in her, rather, it chooses to face the situation head-on without foreseeing how it will evolve or the unforeseen events or contingencies that could concur. With that it is hindered that they can orchestrate some congruent and satisfactory life plan.

3. urgency to act

Impulsivity can also be expressed in the form of urgency in stress, so that it seems impossible to sustain the tension that accumulates in the case of inhibiting action. All impulse control disorders have the common axis of this "urgency", in such a way that the "charge" would only be resolved when it gives way to the performance of the behavior (such as setting fire to a forest in pyromania or placing a new bet in pathological gambling), what ends up maintaining the base problem over the years by negative reinforcement.

4. sensation seeking

Another trait that is consistently associated with impulsivity is the need for novel stimuli, which that is expressed in the search for experiences that can even put at risk the physical integrity or emotional.

Thus, it is possible that situations such as substance abuse or unprotected sexual activities concur, in which immediate pleasure predominates to the detriment of any guarantee of minimum security. As a consequence of all this, boredom occurs very frequently when life becomes too regular, this being a very difficult feeling to tolerate and manage.

5. little perseverance

Impulsivity has the consequence that, in the face of any error or failure resulting from one's own rash action, the person feels unable to continue the effort to turn the situation around. situation. This fact is associated with Difficulty tolerating frustration, which is experienced as a difficult stimulus that is faced in an accelerated way through an active escape behavior. Thus, this abandonment is nothing more than a new expression of impulsiveness in the face of the emotional tension of mistakes.

6. emotional regulation problems

Impulsivity also manifests itself as the difficulty to regulate emotions, that is, to exercise deliberate control over them that prevents their unbridled irruption in daily life. Emotional regulation requires internal spaces arranged to observe in detail what happens inside, to be able to accept it and channel it in the form of behaviors with some adaptive value. When this is not the case, the emotion can become unbearable in its intensity or frequency, and precipitate events that end up worsening the problem.

The influence of education

Impulsivity in children and adolescents has been consistently associated with a number of factors social, especially related to the environment where they spend more time in their lives: the family. And there is evidence that certain parenting patterns, or even particular episodes of violence relationally, they can persistently shape the way a person learns to regulate what unfolds in their inside of her.

Situations of physical, psychological and sexual abuse increase the risk that children and adolescents develop disruptive or antisocial behaviors over the years, in which impulsiveness rises as a cardinal trait. They can also be the consequence of parental care in which coercion, threat, and emotional outbursts of an unpredictable nature are so frequent that the infant is unable to foresee her future and the consequences of her actions. acts; selecting impulsivity as a form of coping.

As can be seen, the impulsivity It is a trait that can be learned in the family, especially when disorganization prevails. and the child or adolescent cannot develop more cohesive habits, through which they learn to efficiently manage the resources available to them (time, material, etc.). Along the same lines, these families may not realize the importance of prosocial behaviors, ignoring its pertinent reinforcement and preventing its consolidation in the child's heritage (behavioral repertoire basic).

All of this is particularly important as impulsiveness can have profoundly negative consequences for a person's life both in the short and long term. Thus, it would be associated with drug use in adulthood, the diagnosis of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases), low educational level, precarious access to the market labor, the poor perception of income for the activity carried out and even the risk of incurring in criminal behavior or residing in socially depressed

These last consequences, in general, cannot be explained solely by the fact of being impulsive, but also depend on the additional problems that usually coexist with it (such as those described in one of the paragraphs preceding).

Its neurological bases in the brain

Impulsivity cannot be understood, as can be inferred from the above, as an isolated behavior; but rather in the prism of a tendency to act quickly and without any thought, with the goal of resolving a situation (external demand) or an emotion (feeling difficult to manage). All this can be better understood when investigating the brain activity of those who usually react in this way, since there is evidence of particularities in a set of neurological structures associated with impulsivity, which we proceed to describe.

One of the most important, without a doubt, is found in the prefrontal cortex; where multiple structural and functional differences have been appreciated when comparing impulsive subjects with those who are not. This area is one of the main structures involved in our own reasoning about our actions, as well as in the planning and inhibition of unwanted behaviors or thoughts. It is currently known that damage to it causes changes in personality, or even triggers pseudodepressive and pseudopsychopathic symptoms.

Within the same prefrontal cortex, which brings together many other structures with distinct functions, the orbitofrontal cortex has a special role in relation to impulsivity. More specifically, it moderates the relationship between emotional responses and motor acts, dealing with the influence of the amygdala (an area that processes emotional experience) and the prefrontal cortex (where all responses that might arise from one's own emotions are elicited or inhibited). affections). Thus, it acts to "stop" or to "allow" our actions in the face of some precipitating stimulus.

This connection is made through the role played by two well-known neurotransmitters: serotonin and dopamine. These are responsible for establishing the communication channel between the amygdala (limbic zone and located in the depths of the brain) and the prefrontal cortex (the most recent zone from the perspective of evolution and located in the anterior region of the parenchyma); through independent pathways for each of them, despite the fact that in recent years it has been confirmed that they interact by inhibiting each other.

In general, it has been observed that a low level of serotonin is associated with greater impulsivity; including participation in risk activities, acts of heteroaggression, self-injury, suicide and subjective feeling of laxity in self-control. Dopamine, in a mirror way, is related to impulsivity in its excess; since the increase in its availability in the synaptic cleft is linked to the immediate search for reinforcements. All of this contributes to the elementary traits of impulsivity, as described throughout this article.

In short, impulsivity is a phenomenon that harbors great complexity, both in its clinical expression and in its etiology (social, biological and psychological). So much so, that it is therefore difficult to conceptually delimit its reality. It is necessary that in the future research on the matter be continued, since it will be with this that more effective treatments to reduce its impact on the life of those who live with it or their environment near.

Bibliographic references:

• Bakhshani, N.M. (2014). Impulsivity: A Predisposition Towards Risky Behaviors. International journal of high risk behaviors and addiction, 3, e20428. doi: 10.5812/ijhrba.20428.
• Net, R. and True, M. (2011). The development and treatment of impulsivity. Psycho, 42, 134.