Impulsive people: their 5 characteristic traits and habits

To what extent are we able to control our most emotional and passionate side? Most human beings are able to control their impulses, since experience and learning teach us that sacrificing everything to satisfy a need immediately is rarely make up for.

However, in some cases this is only half learned. And is that there are a lot of impulsive people, people with serious difficulties when it comes to confronting these kinds of desires. In this article we will see what are the habits and traits of this type of psychological profile and how their actions are explained.

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This is how impulsive people are

Among the traits, habits and propensities of impulsive people, the following stand out.

1. They do not tolerate waiting well

One of the most important psychological traits is the ability to the delay of gratification, which has to do with what is our limit when it comes to refraining from enjoying in the present in order to enjoy more in the future. It is a characteristic that is absent in children of a few years of age but that, as we grow older, is improved.

Impulsive people tend to have a greater ability to delay gratification than youngsters, but relatively low for adults. This is evident in their propensity to manage their money, consume food and even interact with other people (many times we must make sacrifices to improve our social insertion).

• Related article: "Delayed gratification and the ability to resist impulses"

2. They fall into procrastination

Procrastination is the habit of putting off for another day what should be done in the present (or even in the past, and has not yet been done). Namely, constantly putting off an obligation or responsibility.

Typically this goes hand in hand with a feeling of loss of control, as if some mysterious force pushes us not to do a task even though we rationally know we should do it now. In many cases, this action is rationalized after a while, creating a pseudo-rational argument that allows us to feel better about ourselves.

Impulsive people are notable procrastinators, and that is why it is very common that they do not comply with their commitments within the agreed deadlines, on the one hand, or that they do it wrong, due to poor management of the weather.

3. They show compensatory behaviors

The fact of constantly giving in to impulsivity makes that the problems that life already presents us, are added more. In situations of frustration, impulsive people show a greater tendency to fall into compensatory behaviors.

These types of actions are a way of release anxiety in a thoughtless, automatic and immediate way. For example, touching your hair a lot, walking in circles, or, typically, eating.

And it is that unplanned visits to the kitchen are a habit that marks the day to day of impulsive people. The possibility of “getting distracted” by consuming sweet or carbohydrate products is very seductive for those who feel anxiety and stress but does not find a way to end the source of this state, since that would entail meeting medium or long goals term.

On the other hand, in some cases these compensatory actions can become so serious that they are clinically significant, evolving to, for example, the trichotillomania, bulimia nervosa or cutting (phenomena that can have many other causes).

• Related article: "The 7 types of anxiety (causes and symptoms)"

4. They are prone to anger

Conflicts in which it is easy for our angry emotions to express themselves are a trap for impulsive people, since It is difficult for them to maintain a constructive attitude that allows transforming the conflict into a fit between positions with interests own. In other words, fall into anger easily.

That means that in a conflict the non-impulsive party starts from an advantageous situation, since its range of possible reactions is greater and, at the same time, can better predict the behavior of those who are characterized by their impulsiveness.

Of course, another implication of this is that impulsive people are bad at mediating arguments, since they will easily position themselves against someone.

5. Tendency to impulse purchases

All marketing in general aims to commercialize products or services by meeting certain conditions so that what is offered is available and irresistible.

Impulsive people are unusually easy to convince to paying for something they weren't even thinking about when starting their round of shopping. Something as simple as a suitable packaging or a catchy slogan can be enough to make them take action. The same goes for "bargain deals", as they add a reason to buy on the spot without much thought.

How do you explain impulsivity?

There are several theories that try to explain the phenomenon of impulsivity. One of the first and most remembered, for example, is that of Sigmund Freud, according to which impulsivity is the embodiment of the force that the id has over the ego and the superego.

However, today the most widely accepted explanation is that impulsivity is the consequence of an underdeveloped executive system. The executive system is the set of neural networks involved in the management of attention and in goal setting.

While for short-term goals, the influences of the limbic systemThose that are long-term depend on abstract reasoning processes that sometimes are not powerful enough to delay the satisfaction of a need.