TITLE:
The Link between Facets of Impulsivity and Aggression in Extremely Violent Prisoners
AUTHORS:
Henning Værøy, Elin Western, Stein Andersson
KEYWORDS:
UPPS, Aggression, Impulsivity, Inmates, Prisoners
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Psychiatry,
Vol.6 No.1,
January
19,
2016
ABSTRACT: Evidence is growing that
aggressive behavior and impulsivity have subgroups. The subscales of the
Urgency, Premeditation, Perseverance and Sensation seeking (UPPS) impulsivity
scale and the Bryant and Smith shortened and refined version of the Aggression
Questionnaire were used to describe and compare impulsive and aggressive
behavior in extremely violent and aggressive male inmates and non-violent healthy
male controls. The Mann-Whitney test showed that there was a significant
difference (pppp-value
was very close to statistical significance at 0.054. Regression analysis
revealed a strong relationship between urgency and the aggression subscales
hostility (p= 0.0004) and
anger (p= 0.003) and that
urgency was also linked to symptoms of anxiety (p= 0.008). Finally, a statistically
significant link was found between both hostility (p= 0.0003) and anger (p= 0.002) and symptoms of anxiety. The
highly selected subgroup of extremely violent criminals in this study were more
physically aggressive than non-violent controls, with urgency as the driving
feature in their impulsive behavior, and hostility, anger and symptoms of
anxiety as underlying traits.