THE COMPONENTS OF IMPULSIVENESS - A COMPARISON OF THE I.7 IMPULSIVENESS QUESTIONNAIRE AND THE BARRATT IMPULSIVENESS SCALE

Self-report questionnaires are among the most widely used techniques for measuring impulsiveness. Some have been developed as a part of more general personality scales, and others specifically for measuring impulsiveness. In this paper we compare the psychometric properties of two of the latter, the I.7 Impulsiveness Questionnaire (Eysenck, Pearson, Easting & Allsopp, 1985; Personality and Individual Differences, 6, 613-619) and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale BIS-10 [Barratt, 1985; Motivation, emotion and personality (pp. 137-146). North Holland: Elsevier] when applied to a Spanish sample. The means, standard deviations and reliabilities of each scale were calculated and compared with those reported in the original papers. In addition, the items of the I.7 impulsiveness and venturesomeness subscales and the BIS-10 'motor impulsivity', 'cognitive impulsivity' and 'non-planning impulsivity' subscales were pooled and a factor analysis performed to investigate the extent to which the two scales measure the same variable and to get a better understanding of the impulsiveness construct and its components as measured by personality questionnaires. © 1991.