Parsing the heterogeneity of impulsivity: A meta-analytic review of the behavioral implications of the UPPS for psychopathology.

Abstract

The construct of impulsivity is implicated in a wide variety of psychopathology. However, the heterogeneous factors or subcomponents that differentially predict outcomes are still in the process of being parsed. The present review and meta-analysis focuses on the psychopathological correlates of the Negative Urgency, (lack of) Premeditation, (lack of) perseverance, Sensation Seeking, and Positive Urgency (UPPS/UPPS-P; Whiteside & Lynam, 2001). which provides a relatively new model of impulsivity that posits 5 potentially overlapping pathways to impulsive action. The present meta-analysis included 115 studies that used the UPPS, with a total of 40,432 participants. Findings suggested that the Negative Urgency pathway to impulsivity demonstrated the greatest correlational effect sizes across all forms of psychopathology, with the Positive Urgency pathway demonstrating a pattern of correlations similar to that of Negative Urgency. These findings raise questions regarding the conceptual and practical separability of these pathways. Lack of Premeditation and Lack of Perseverance also demonstrated similar correlational patterns, suggesting that further investigation of the distinctiveness of these pathways is warranted.

Impulsivity Predictors of Problem Gambling and Impaired Control

“…It was due to multicollinearity that Blain et al needed to separate negative and positive urgency and analyse two regression models. Other studies [24,27,28] have also found correlations consistently appearing above r=0.60 between positive and negative urgency which supports Berg et al [2] questioning the distinctiveness of these two impulsivity facets.…”

“…Of particular interest to the current study was the positive urgency facet and claims that it may not be orthogonal to negative urgency [2]. In the current study, both negative and positive urgency were strongly correlated with both the PGSI and impaired control.…”

“…In both models age and gender were controlled and, in both models, age was also a significant negative predictor of scores on both the SLUGS and the PGSI. The result for negative urgency has considerable support in the literature on problem gambling (e.g., [2,[19][20][21]23]). Negative urgency measures strong impulses under condition of negative affect and this was shown in the current study to be the sole impulsivity predictor of impaired control and the strongest impulsivity predictor of problem gambling for a sample of regular EGM players.…”

“…Although positive urgency is considered a separate construct, Berg et al [2] performed a meta-analytic review of the psychopathological correlates of the five facets of the UPPS-P and found a similar pattern between negative and positive urgency. Both types of urgency had also generated the largest effect sizes across 115 studies with more than 40,000 participants.…”

“…It is considered to play an important role in the initiation of behaviour and to be a personality-based risk factor for a range of mental health disorders including substance abuse, pathological gambling, bulimia nervosa, attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder, borderline and anti-social personality disorders [2][3][4][5]. In total, the DSM-IV had 18 separate disorders that included criteria related to a broad definition of impulsivity [6] and this underlines the importance of defining and measuring the trait.…”