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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What are impulses? We experience impulses every day. Why are you wearing your orange shirt today? Why did you pick a salad for dinner instead of steak? Why did you drive one route to work as opposed to another? I suppose some people are more spontaneous than others, but can impulses be called sporadic? Uncontrolled? Are they valid choices you have made - or are impulses something we do not realize we are powerless to? Can we choose to say certain things? Do we have any choices? Who, or what rather, is in control?
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Hyperactivity and impulsiveness are not both needed to be ADHD. An ADHD individual without hyperactivity is interchangably referred to as ADD, which most ADHD females are.
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The most common behaviors of ADHD fall into three categories: inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. People with ADHD may show several signs of being consistently inattentive. They may have a pattern of being hyperactive and impulsive, or they may show all three types of behavior. Inattention is when people have a hard time keeping their minds on any one thing and may get bored with a task after only a few minutes. They may find it agonizing to do homework without getting bored. Often they will forget to plan ahead by writing down the assignment or bringing home the right books. When finally trying to do work they may find themselves drifting to something else; as a result, work will rarely get done.
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