STUDIES OF VIOLENT AND NONVIOLENT MALE PAROLEES .2. LABORATORY AND PSYCHOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS OF IMPULSIVITY

Male parolees were recruited into a laboratory study to determine the relationship between their previous criminal history (violent versus n onviolent), and behavioral and psychometric measures of impulsivity. D uring sessions, subjects were given two response options defined as: 1 ) an impulsive choice-small monetary reward after a short fixed delay; and 2) a self-control choice-a larger monetaly reward after a variabl e longer delay, Based upon an extensive experimental literature in ani mals and humans related to delay of gratification, the degree of impul sivity was defined as the proportion of trials on which the subject se lected the impulsive option, Our results indicated that the violent su bjects selected the impulsive option significantly more often than the nonviolent parolees. The number of impulsive responses parolees emitt ed was significantly correlated with the number of aggressive response s reported in an earlier paper, This study provides support for the re lationship between impulsivity and aggression among male parolees, (C) 1997 Society of Biological Psychiatry.