Longitudinal validation of the urgency traits over the first year of college

Melissa A. Cyders, Gregory T. Smith

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

Research has identified 2 emotion-based dispositions to rash action, referred to as positive urgency and negative urgency. They are thought to reflect tendencies to engage in rash acts when in extremely positive and extremely negative moods, respectively. In this article, we describe the first direct test of this hypothesis. We measured the urgency traits and risky behavior involvement while in extremely positive and negative moods over the course of the first year of college for 292 students. After controlling for sex, typical mood state, and prior mood-based rash behavior, positive urgency predicted increases in positive mood-based rash action, and negative urgency predicted increases in negative mood-based rash action during the first year of college. These results provide further evidence for the validity of the theory of emotion-based rash action and for the measures of positive and negative urgency.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)63-69
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Personality Assessment
Volume92
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2010

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Portions of this research were supported by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) award 5 F31 AA 016265–03 to Melissa Cyders and NIAAA award 1 RO1 AA 016166 to Gregory Smith.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Psychology
  • Psychiatry and Mental health
  • Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

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