Dr. Cherek et al., STUDIES OF VIOLENT AND NONVIOLENT MALE PAROLEES .2. LABORATORY AND PSYCHOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS OF IMPULSIVITY, Biological psychiatry, 41(5), 1997, pp. 523-529
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.