Is urgency emotionality? Separating urgent behaviors from effects of emotional experiences

Abstract

Previous research has supported the role of positive and negative maladaptive behaviors, but has not addressed the strong conceptual overlap of these traits with frequency/intensity of emotions and lack of premeditation. The current study empirically examined the differential effects of urgency, emotions, and lack of premeditation on risk-taking behavior in a sample of 520 US undergraduate students. The results of the study indicate that (1) urgency is a significant predictor of risky behavior, independent of frequency/intensity of emotions, (2) urgency predicts above and beyond the additive and interactive effects of lack of premeditation and frequency/intensity of emotions, and (3) those who are high in both urgency and drinking motives are at greatest risk for drinking/drunkenness.

Introduction

Research within the field of risky behaviors has often focused on the strong impetus of emotional state as a risk factor for impulsive and risky behavior (Cyders & Smith, 2008a). Recent research has considered the traits of negative urgency (NUR) and positive urgency (PUR), the tendency to act rashly while experiencing a negative or positive emotional state, respectively, and their effect in risky behaviors. However, research has yet to control for the intensity and frequency of the experience of emotion in accounting for the relationship between urgency and risky behavior. It is possible that urgency’s role could be explained by additive or interactive relationships among emotional intensity, frequency of extreme emotions, and lack of premeditation. The goal of this paper is to separate the role of urgency from these variables and to determine whether it is a better predictor of risky behavior during extreme emotional states.

PUR and NUR have become well-established as important risk factors for problematic risky behaviors. Although they have additional unique relationships, NUR and PUR are both related to alcohol consumption, gambling, negative outcomes from risk-taking, and drinking to cope with or enhance emotions, respectively (Cyders et al., 2009, Cyders and Smith, 2010, Cyders et al., 2007, Fischer and Smith, 2008, Fischer et al., 2007, Miller et al., 2003). Emotions, as well, are related to many of these same behaviors. Emotions can reduce advantageous decision making, impair one’s ability to maintain self-control behaviors (Bechara, 2004, Bechara, 2005, Dolan, 2007, Dreisbach, 2006, Shiv et al., 2005, Tice et al., 2001), and lead to behaviors such as alcohol use, dysregulated eating, drug use, gambling, and self-harm behaviors (Larsen, 2000). Specifically, people tend to drink, engage in binge eating and purging, and gamble on days when they are more stressed (Cyders and Smith, 2008b, Holub et al., 2005, Smyth et al., 2007, Swendson et al., 2000). Individuals prone to experiencing negative emotions engage in risky behaviors to cope with the aversive mood states, whereas, extraverted individuals engage in risky behaviors in a way to enhance experiences of positive affect (Cooper, Agocha, & Sheldon, 2000).

Given the conceptual overlap between these constructs, research should address whether or not urgency and intensity/frequency of emotions have separable effects on risk-taking. It is possible that urgency may be an additive or interaction combination of lack of premeditation and frequency/intensity of emotional experiences. Cyders and Smith (2008a) examined the relationship between the urgency traits and the 30 facets of the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R). They found that NUR and PUR load most highly on neuroticism in factor analysis and have reliable variance (72–85% of the variance in PUR, and 45–61% of the variance in NUR) unexplained by the sums and interactions of the facets of neuroticism and conscientiousness. Although this begins to address the question, it is not sufficient to answer this inquiry. The goals of the current paper are to (1) examine the interaction between the urgency traits and frequency/intensity of emotional experiences to demonstrate the unique role of the urgency traits for general and mood-based risky behavior; (2) demonstrate whether or not the urgency traits have reliable predictive utility over and above these aspects of emotional experience, lack of premeditation, and their interaction, in the prediction of mood-based risky behaviors; and (3) examine the differential role of the urgency traits, lack of premeditation, frequency/intensity of emotional experiences, and drinking motives to predict drinking behaviors.