Aspects of Impulsivity

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One of the goals of personality psychology is to develop general understanding of each specific trait and the way they interact with each other to create such a variety of personalities. One of the traits that have attracted a considerable amount of attention is impulsivity. Impulsivity is viewed as acting in a spontaneous way, or not giving much thought to potential consequences of actions before they are carried out. Typically viewed in a negative light, Charles Carver and a few other personality psychologists do make an argument that there can be both positive and negative aspects of impulsivity.
As he points out, impulsivity can be something very positive and refreshing and in many cases is harmless. For example, an impulsive person may wake up one morning and spontaneously decide to take a trip to another state. In this example impulsivity is adding fun and excitement to the individual’s life, and for those around them that might be along for the ride. Other examples of impulsivity include reacting quickly to an opportunity one might have otherwise missed. However, there are times when it can create conflict and cause individuals to violate social norms. In any case where an individual might do something spontaneous to their appearance they may receive negative reactions from their peers, thus creating a stressful environment for themselves. An example of this would be when Britney Spears shaved her head in 2007, shocking everyone and receiving a lot of criticism and generally negative attention for this behavior. Highly impulsive individuals are also more likely to blurt out things that may not be appropriate in certain settings (such as Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the VMAs), and put thems...

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