Diagnostic validity of behavioural and psychometric impulsivity measures: An assessment in adolescent and adult populations

This investigation examined how different psychological and behavioural measures can be used to identify impulsive individuals. Five clinical groups split, between adolescents and adults, with varying levels of weight-management issues, were used to validate the impulsivity measures. The measures consisted of two behavioural, an inhibitory control measure (Stop Signal Task) and a Temporal Discounting measure, along with two personality measures, the Temperament and Character Inventory (Cloninger, Przybeck, Svrakic, & Wetzel, 1994) and the adolescent version (The Junior Temperament and Character Inventory) and finally the Barrat Impulsivity Scale (Patton, Stanford, & Barratt, 1995). The most sensitive was the Stop Signal Reaction time, which depicted significant differences in inhibitory control for all but two groups (Adult Lifestyle and Adult Healthy). The psychometric scales were able to sufficiently discriminate between obese and impulsive individuals with healthier participants. The Self-Control and Novelty Seeking subscales on the BIS. The Novelty Seeking subscale of the TCI-R and the JTCI, significantly discriminated between obese and healthy individuals. There was a high degree of association amongst the measures used, identifying that these measures can be used to monitor and measure impulsiveness in obese individuals for use in weight-loss interventions.<p>This network project brings together economists, psychologists, computer and complexity scientists from three leading centres for behavioural social science at Nottingham, Warwick and UEA. This group will lead a research programme with two broad objectives: to develop and test cross-disciplinary models of human behaviour and behaviour change; to draw out their implications for the formulation and evaluation of public policy.
Foundational research will focus on three inter-related themes: understanding individual behaviour and behaviour change; understanding social and interactive behaviour; rethinking the foundations of policy analysis.
The project will explore implications of the basic science for policy via a series of applied projects connecting naturally with the three themes. These will include: the determinants of consumer credit behaviour; the formation of social values; strategies for evaluation of policies affecting health and safety.
The research will integrate theoretical perspectives from multiple disciplines and utilise a wide range of complementary methodologies including: theoretical modeling of individuals, groups and complex systems; conceptual analysis; lab and field experiments; analysis of large data sets.
The Network will promote high quality cross-disciplinary research and serve as a policy forum for understanding behaviour and behaviour change.</p>