What is impulsivity? Its causes and behavioral effects

This behavior pattern is linked to an increased risk of having problems in life.

One of the defining characteristics of human beings is that they are animals with the capacity to reason about their emotional impulses, with "reason" being the basis on which they base their actions in the world that unfolds before them. This is why we delight in considering ourselves as a "rational animal".

This would draw a differential line with the rest of the creatures that populate 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, in spite of this generalized belief, is that we do not always act in a rational or meditated way; we often let ourselves be carried away by our most primitive instincts.We often let ourselves be carried away by the flow of our most primitive instincts. There are even people who, in fact, react in this way in almost every situation.

In this article we will deal precisely with the issue of impulsivity.In this article we will deal precisely with the issue of impulsivity, both the way in which it is defined and its possible causes and neurological roots, since it is a trait that harbors a certain mystery and that conditions the life of the person who presents it and his or her environment.

What is impulsivity?

Impulsivity is a complex concept, which has attempted to be clearly defined many times, but for which there is still no clear consensus. Most commonly, a succession of defining traits are used, which are presented together in the person who is said to be impulsive, but which do not reach the descriptive level necessary to convince the entire scientific community. Thus, attributes such as "impetuous", "thoughtless" or "rash" would be used.

Another difficulty in delimiting its nature is found in the fact that this symptom usually manifests itself in the context of other mental disorders, and rarely in isolation.and rarely in isolation. It is commonly present in borderline personality disorder (thoughtless behaviors), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (precipitation and interruption), pathological gambling (irresistible desire to gamble) or binge eating disorder (voracious and unrestrained overeating).

On the other hand, is also a risk factor in many other mental health problems.It is one of the most important reasons why some people abandon psychological treatment or other forms of intervention. Thus, it is diluted with many other physical and psychological disorders, making it difficult to discriminate those that can be attributed to it from those that really cannot.

Its facets

Some researchers have attempted to classify the different forms in which impulsivity can be expressed, so that some degree of agreement seems to be emerging regarding three basic dimensions: cognitive (haste 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 an action). In any case, there is a risk of very negative consequences for the person or for 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.

Difficulty in delaying reward and search for immediacy 2.

Impulsivity is characterized by problems when it comes to stopping impulses, i.e., inhibiting behaviors in spite of inhibiting behaviors in spite of the estimation of potential negative consequences.. This process is deployed in the face of varied appetitive stimuli, considered desirable, even though waiting could result in an increase in the intensity or quantity of the reward chosen. Therefore, immediacy prevails in the way of conducting 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 that the person who possesses it does not weigh the consequences of actions on the future. Likewise, he/she does not make structured plans on how to face an event that precipitates a difficult emotional response, but chooses to face the situation head-on without foreseeing how it will evolve or the unforeseen events or contingencies that may occur. This hinders them from orchestrating a congruent and satisfactory life plan..

3. Urgency to act

Impulsivity can also express itself 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", so that the "burden" would only be resolved when the behavior is yielded to (such as the burning of a forest in pyromania or the placing of a new bet in pathological gambling), which This ends up maintaining the basic problem over the years through negative reinforcement..

4. Sensation seeking

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

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

5. Lack of perseverance

Impulsivity has the consequence that, in the face of any error or failure resulting from one's own hasty action, the person feels incapable of continuing to make an effort to turn the situation around. This fact is associated with difficulty in tolerating frustration, which is experienced as a difficult stimulus that is dealt with in an accelerated manner. This fact is associated with the difficulty to tolerate frustration, which is experienced as a difficult stimulus that is dealt with in an accelerated manner through an active escape behavior. Thus, this abandonment is nothing more than a new expression of impulsivity in the face of the emotional tension of the blunders.

6. Emotional regulation problems

Impulsivity also manifests itself as the difficulty to regulate emotions, that is, to exercise deliberate control over them in order to prevent their unbridled irruption in daily life. Emotional regulation requires internal spaces ready to observe in detail what is happening inside, to be able to accept it and to manage it.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 series of social factors, above all related to the environment where they spend most time in their lives: the family. There is evidence that certain parenting patterns, or even particular episodes of relational violence, can persistently shape the way in which a person learns to regulate what unfolds within him or her.

Situations of physical, psychological and sexual abuse increase the risk of children and adolescents developing disruptive or antisocial behaviors over the years, in which impulsivity emerges as a cardinal feature. They may 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 his future and the consequences of his actions; selecting impulsivity as a way of coping.

As can be seen, impulsivity is a trait that can be learned in the family, especially when disorganization is the norm. and the child or adolescent cannot develop more cohesive habits through which to learn to efficiently manage the resources available to him/her (time, materials, etc.). Along the same lines, it is possible that these families do not pay attention to the importance of prosocial behaviors, thus ignoring their pertinent reinforcement and preventing their consolidation in the child's acquis (basic behavioral repertoire).

All this is particularly important to the extent that impulsivity can have profoundly negative consequences for a person's life in both 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 labor market, poor income for the activity performed, and even the risk of engaging in criminal behavior or residing in socially depressed areas.

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

Their neurological basis 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 meditation, with the aim of resolving a situation (external demand) or an emotion (feeling difficult to manage). All of this can be better understood when we investigate the brain activity of those who tend to react in this way, as there is evidence of particularities in a set of neurological structures associated with impulsivity, which we will now describe.which we will now describe.

One of the most important of these is undoubtedly found in the prefrontal cortex, where multiple structural and functional differences have been observed when comparing impulsive and non-impulsive subjects. This area is one of the main structures involved in the reasoning of our own actions, as well as in the planning and inhibition of undesired behaviors or thoughts. It is currently known that damage to it causes changes in personality, or even detonates pseudodepressive and pseudopsychopathic symptoms.

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

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

In general, it has been observed that a low serotonin level is associated with greater impulsivity, including participation in risky activities, acts of heteroaggression, self-harm, suicide and subjective sensation of laxity in self-control. Dopamine, speculatively, is related to impulsivity in its excess; since their increased availability in the synaptic cleft is linked to the immediate search for reinforcement.. All this contributes to the elementary features of impulsivity, as described throughout this article.

In short, impulsivity is a phenomenon of great complexity, both in its clinical expression and in its etiology (social, Biological and psychological). So much so that it is difficult to conceptually delimit its reality. Further research on the issue is needed in the future, as it will be with this that more effective treatments will be achieved to reduce its impact on the life of those who live with it or their close environment.

Bibliographical references:

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