THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN FUNCTIONAL AND DYSFUNCTIONAL IMPULSIVITY AND THE EYSENCK PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE

According to Dickman (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 95-102 1990), two types of impulsive personality trait can be distinguished within the self-report domain: functional impulsivity and dysfunctional impulsivity. The present study investigated the relationships between functional impulsivity and dysfunctional impulsivity and the personality traits of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism (Eysenck & Eysenck, Psychoticism as a dimension of personality, 1976). The results lend some support to Dickman's distinction between the two impulsivity traits: whilst functional impulsivity correlated positively with psychoticism and negatively with neuroticism, dysfunctional impulsivity was unrelated to these two variables. On the other hand, both functional and dysfunctional impulsivity were positively correlated with extraversion.