Conceptualizing impulsivity as a construct in relation to posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity among women.

Despite the established association between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and impulsivity, the literature is limited regarding impulsivity as a multifaceted construct. That is, the field's understanding of how PTSD symptoms may increase particular impulsive tendencies and behaviors is constrained by examining impulsivity solely as an umbrella term. The aim of the present study was to determine if there are differential associations between PTSD symptom severity and various components of impulsivity across multiple self-report measures. A sample of 215 undergraduate women (M age = 19.77 years, SD = 1.91, Range: 18-39 years) completed the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), short version of the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale (SUPPS-P), and Delaying Gratification Inventory (DGI). Structural equation modeling was used to examine associations between PTSD symptoms and each measure's subscales. The findings included significant predictions from PTSD symptoms to the BIS-11 Attentional Impulsiveness subscale, ß = .23, SE = .07, 95% CI [.09, .37]; DGI Physical Pleasures, ß = -.24, SE = .07, 95% CI [-.38, -.11], and Achievement subscales, ß = -.19, SE = .08, 95% CI [-.34, -.04]; and the SUPPS-P Positive Urgency, ß = .22, SE = .08, 95% CI [.07, .37], and Negative Urgency subscales, ß = .32, SE = .07, 95% CI [.19, .46]. These results have implications for precision medicine approaches that emphasize targeting these specific facets of impulsivity, with likely downstream effects on health risk behaviors for emerging adult women.

A laboratory examination of risky sexual behavior among female sexual trauma survivors.

Sexual violence against women is highly prevalent on college campuses. Survivors of sexual violence often engage in coping strategies such as risky sexual behavior. The present study used a behavioral task to measure sexual risk-taking following experiences of positive or negative affect and an emotion suppression experimental manipulation. Sexually active adult female undergraduates (N = 175) completed measures of sexual traumatization and affective experiences as well as an autobiographical recall task and a delay discounting task for hypothetical sexual outcomes. Half of the participants (n = 87) were asked to suppress their emotional response to the autobiographical recall task. The findings indicate that sexual traumatization had a significant effect on risky sexual decision-making, F(1, 167) = 23.27, p < .001, ηp 2 = .12, but affective condition, F(1, 167) = .57, p = .451, and emotion suppression, F(1, 167) = .69, p = .412, exhibited no significant associations with sexual risk-taking. These findings suggest other factors may underlie the association between sexual trauma and risky sexual behavior, but further research is warranted.

Reactions to Laboratory-Based Trauma Research in a Sample of Incarcerated Women.

An evidence-based approach to research ethics is critical to ethical research but little is known about how trauma survivors-especially those from vulnerable populations-respond to laboratory-based trauma research. One hundred four incarcerated women (N = 64 rape survivors) reported their traumatic life experiences, listened to and responded to an audio recording of a dating interaction that culminates in a completed rape, and then reported their responses to their participation. Compared to the control group (N = 40), rape survivors (N = 64) had more posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and these symptoms were associated with more emotional responding. Both groups showed a positive benefit-cost ratio with regard to their participation did not differ on their overall reactions to research participation. These findings suggest that laboratory-based trauma research methods are associated with consistently positive experiences, which can help inform researchers and institutional review boards about the risks and benefits of such research.

Immediate and Delayed Reactions to Trauma-related Laboratory Research Among Rape Survivors and Controls.

Ethical implications of laboratory-based experimental trauma research are not well studied. Female rape survivors (N = 62) and controls (N = 79) listened to an audio recording of a sexual assault and completed mental health measures and the Reactions to Research Participation Questionnaire-Revised in the first session and again several weeks later. In the first session, mental health symptoms were associated with stronger emotional reactions and personal benefits from participation. Rape survivors also reported stronger emotional reactions than controls, but also more personal benefits, more satisfaction, and fewer perceived drawbacks from participation. Several weeks later, both groups reported diminished posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and rape survivors' reports of stronger emotional reactions and greater satisfaction with their participation remained significant. Benefit-cost ratios indicate positive responses to participation across groups and time. Findings suggest significant benefits to laboratory trauma research for participants.

Domain-Specific Relationships in Sexual Measures of Impulsive Behavior.

Impulsivity is an important construct for understanding sexual behaviors, but behavioral and self-report measures of impulsivity often are not correlated. One possible explanation for this is that there is little shared variance in the measures because behavioral measures index impulsivity by asking questions about monetary preferences, while self-report measures index impulsivity by asking about a broad range of real-world outcomes (including those of a sexual nature) largely unrelated to money-related preferences. Undergraduate students (total N = 105; female n = 77, male n = 28) completed laboratory measures-delay discounting (DD) and probability discounting (PD)-for two different outcomes-money and sexual activity. Participants also completed the Delaying Gratification Inventory (DGI), which measures difficulty with delaying gratification (i.e., impulsivity) across different domains, including money and physical pleasures. Findings indicated that DD and PD for money were not related to any of the DGI subscales. However, DD for sexual activity was significantly related to the DGI Physical Pleasures subscale, but not other subscales. These findings suggest that the relationship between behavioral and self-report measures of impulsive choice may be stronger when both are measuring domain-specific rather than domain-general behavioral patterns, but further research is warranted.

A meta-analysis of nonsystematic responding in delay and probability reward discounting.

Delay discounting (DD) and probability discounting (PD) are behavioral measures of choice that index sensitivity to delayed and probabilistic outcomes, which are associated with a range of negative health-related outcomes. Patterns of discounting tend to be predictable, where preferences for immediate (vs. delayed) and certain (vs. probabilistic) rewards change as a function of delay and probability. However, some participants yield nonsystematic response patterns (NSR) that cannot be accounted for by theories of choice and could have implications for the validity of discounting-related experiments. Johnson and Bickel (2008) outline an algorithm for identifying NSR patterns in discounting, but the typical frequency of and methodological predictors of NSR patterns are not yet established in the extant literature. In this meta-analytic review, we identified papers for analysis by searching Web of Science, PubMed, and PsycInfo databases until November 8, 2015 for experiments identifying nonsystematic responders using Johnson and Bickel's algorithm. This yielded 114 experiments with nonsystematic data reported. The overall frequency of NSR across DD and PD studies was 18% and 19%, respectively. Nonmonetary outcomes (e.g., drugs, food, sex) yielded significantly more NSR patterns than did discounting for monetary outcomes. Participants recruited from a university setting had significantly more NSR patterns than did participants recruited from nonuniversity settings. Our review also indicates that researchers are inconsistent in whether or how they report NSR in discounting studies, which is relevant for a clearer understanding of the behavioral mechanisms that underlie impulsive choice. We make several recommendations regarding the assessment of NSR in discounting research. (PsycINFO Database Record

Delay Discounting and Probability Discounting, But Not Response Inhibition, Are Associated With Sexual Risk Taking in Adults.

Sexual risk behavior (SRB) is associated with impulsivity, but it is not clear whether different aspects of impulsivity are uniquely related to SRBs in adults. Unmarried adults ages 18 to 30 (N = 296; 41.0% male) recruited from the community reported their frequency of SRBs over the past six months using the Sexual Risk Survey (SRS; Turchik & Garske, 2009) and completed three behavioral measures of impulsivity: insensitivity to delayed consequences (delay discounting [DD]), insensitivity to probabilistic consequences (probability discounting [PD]) and response inhibition (stop signal task [SST]). SRS total scores were significantly related to both DD and PD but not SST. These findings suggest that insensitivity to delayed and probabilistic consequences, but not response inhibition, are meaningfully associated with SRBs in young adults. This may be important for the development of strategies to prevent or reduce sexual risk behaviors.

Delay and probability discounting among payday and title loan recipients.

Payday and title loans are short-term loans associated with significant economic impact. Behavioral theories of impulsive choice may provide insight into behavioral processes that underlie the propensity to take out payday and title loans. Adults between the ages of 18 and 30 recruited from the community completed delay and probability discounting tasks for hypothetical money as well as measures of substance use. Patterns of discounting were characterized using a hyperbolic decay model and area under the curve. Participants who took out a payday and/or title loan in the past (n=41) exhibited more impulsive choice patterns on the delay discounting task than did those who did not (n=255). Substance use mediated this relationship between payday and title loan retention and delay discounting. These findings suggest potentially important relationships between payday/title loan borrowing, substance use, and delay discounting.

Differential associations between obesity and behavioral measures of impulsivity.

A growing literature indicates that impulsivity is a fundamental behavioral process that underlies obesity. However, impulsivity is a multidimensional construct, which comprises independent patterns of decision-making that could be uniquely associated with obesity. No research to date has clarified whether obesity is differentially associated with specific behavioral aspects of impulsivity. This study examined whether obesity was differentially associated with patterns of decision-making associated with impulsivity-delay discounting, probability discounting, and response inhibition. Young adults (n = 296; 44.3% male) age 18-30 were recruited from the community with media advertisements. Participants completed a series of standard self-report measures of health outcomes and behavioral measures of delay discounting, probability discounting, and response inhibition individually in a laboratory. Associations between body mass index (BMI) and behavioral outcomes in the whole sample indicated that BMI was associated with age, delay discounting, and probability discounting, but not response inhibition. A logistic regression that included age, sex, and substance use as covariates found that delay discounting, but neither probability discounting nor response inhibition, was associated with obesity status. Sensitivity to delay, rather than response inhibition and sensitivity to uncertainty, may be the best correlate of obesity status in adults. These findings are relevant to our understanding of the fundamental behavioral processes associated with obesity.

Measurement and validation of measures for impulsive food choice across obese and healthy-weight individuals.

The present study established a brief measure of delay discounting for food, the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ), and compared it to another more established measure of food discounting that uses the adjusting amount (AA) procedure. One hundred forty-four undergraduate participants completed either two measures of hypothetical food discounting (a computerized food AA procedure or the FCQ) or two measures of hypothetical money discounting [a computerized monetary AA procedure or the Monetary Choice questionnaire (MCQ)]. The money condition was used as a replication of previous work. Results indicated that the FCQ yielded consistent data that strongly correlated with the AA food discounting task. Moreover, a magnitude effect was found with the FCQ, such that smaller amounts of food were discounted more steeply than larger amounts. In addition, individuals with higher percent body fat (PBF) discounted food more steeply than individuals with lower PBF. The MCQ, which also produced a magnitude effect, and the monetary adjusting amount procedure yielded data that were orderly, consistent, and correlated strongly with one another, replicating previous literature. This study is the first to show that a novel measure of food discounting (the FCQ) yields consistent data strongly correlated with an established measure of food discounting and is sensitive to PBF. Moreover, the FCQ is easier and quicker to administer than the AA procedure, which may interest researchers who use discounting tasks in food-related research.

Using delay discounting to understand impulsive choice in socially anxious individuals: failure to replicate.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Impulsive choice that follows transient anxiety responses is a potentially important outcome that may underlie maladaptive behavioral patterns that co-occur with high levels of social anxiety. However, little research has examined impulsive choice in relation to social anxiety. Rounds, Beck and Grant (2007; Behavior Research and Therapy, 45, 729­735) found that high social anxiety was associated with impulsive choice using a delay discounting procedure, but only in a non-threatening (control) condition, but several procedural confounds in that study may also explain the findings. The purpose of this study was to replicate Rounds et al. while controlling for potential procedural confounds. METHODS: High- and low-social anxiety adult college-students with no substance abuse history were assigned randomly to a public speaking condition or a control (silent reading) condition. In the middle of the task, participants completed a measure of delay discounting, which measures impulsive choice. RESULTS: Impulsive choice was not influenced by either social anxiety status or experimental condition. LIMITATIONS: Other aspects of impulsive choice may be more sensitive to transient anxiety and fear. Higher state levels of social anxiety and transient anxiety may be necessary to detect a significant relationship with impulsive choice. Relatively high levels of impulsive responding may only occur in socially anxious individuals with current/historical substance abuse. CONCLUSIONS: Neither anxiogenic laboratory procedures nor social anxiety status appear to influence impulsive choice as measured by the delay discounting task. Future research might consider examining whether transient anxiety influences other aspects of impulsive choice.

Steeper delay and probability discounting of potentially real versus hypothetical cigarettes (but not money) among smokers.

There is a strong relationship between drug use and the tendency to discount the value of outcomes as a function of their delay and probability. Most discounting researchers use hypothetical monetary outcomes to establish discounting patterns among human subjects, who tend to discount the value of hypothetical money and real money similarily. However, no research to date has examined whether hypothetical non-monetary outcomes are discounted similarly to real non-monetary outcomes. In this study, smokers were assigned randomly to complete delay and probability discounting tasks for money and cigarettes that were either potentially real (n=33) or hypothetical (n=31). Consistent with previous research, smokers discounted the value of hypothetical and potentially real money similarly. However, smokers evidenced steeper rates of discounting for potentially real cigarettes in both delay and probability discounting. These findings suggest domain-specific discounting patterns in which potentially real and hypothetical outcomes may be synonymous in the context of monetary outcomes, but not in the context of non-monetary outcomes.

Predicting domain-specific outcomes using delay and probability discounting for sexual versus monetary outcomes.

Discounting, the tendency to devalue an outcome as a function of its delay or probability, is emerging as a fundamental process that underlies a broad range of impulsivity-related behaviors. Recent research suggests that people discount the value of sexual outcomes and individual differences in rate of discounting of sexual outcomes may represent an important behavioral process that underlies sexual risk behavior. However, it is not clear that discounting the value of domain-specific sexual outcomes (e.g., sexual activity) is a better predictor of sexual behaviors than is discounting for domain non-specific outcomes (e.g., money). Adult undergraduates (n=103) completed delay and probability discounting procedures in relation to money and sexual activity and a series of self-report measures concerning sexual and non-sexual outcomes. Results revealed domain-specific relationships such that (1) discounting for sexual and monetary outcomes were significantly correlated; (2) discounting for sexual activity was significantly associated with sexual excitability, but not with non-sexual outcomes; and (3) discounting for money was not related to the sexual outcomes. A consistent gender effect across measures suggests that gender may moderate the relationships between discounting and sexual and non-sexual outcomes. The relevance of these findings for domain-specific discounting is discussed.

Discounting of hypothetical and potentially real outcomes in nicotine-dependent and nondependent samples.

Discounting is a behavioral phenomenon in which the value of an outcome diminishes as a function of its increased delay or decreased probability and is related to substance abuse research because of its theoretical ties with behavioral models of impulsive choice. Research to date suggests that hypothetical outcomes used in discounting research yield data that are indistinguishable from those using potentially real outcomes. However, the extant literature focuses primarily on delay discounting in non-drug-using humans and has not examined whether hypothetical outcomes yield disproportionate numbers of nonsystematic response patterns. In two experiments, we compared hypothetical and potentially real monetary outcomes in delay and probability discounting tasks in terms of rates of discounting and the frequency of nonsystematic response patterns. In Experiment 1, 61 adults reported no smoking, binge drinking, or illicit drug use in the past year. Experiment 2 included a community sample of nicotine-dependent adults (N = 36). In both experiments, discounting for hypothetical and potentially real outcomes yielded similar data, replicating and extending a growing literature pointing to the empirical equivalence of these outcomes. These findings are relevant to research on discounting that is frequently used in the study of substance use and other impulse-control behaviors.

Probability and delay discounting of hypothetical sexual outcomes.

The present study used the discounting procedure to characterize choice behaviors regarding hypothetical sexual outcomes. Eighty-six adult undergraduate students completed computerized delay and probability discounting tasks concerning hypothetical money and hypothetical sexual activity. Consistent with other discounting findings, hyperbolic and hyperbola-like decay models described individual and group median indifference point data well. These findings contribute to a growing literature on the relevance of the discounting procedure to decision-making processes and suggest that the discounting procedure may be useful for understanding the processes that underlie social problem behaviors associated with impulsive sexual decisions.

Percent body fat is related to delay and probability discounting for food in humans.

This study describes delay and probability discounting patterns for hypothetical food and money in relation to percent body fat (PBF). Sixty university students completed four computerized discounting tasks in which they were asked to make a series of hypothetical decisions between (a) 10 dollars after one of several different delays (1, 2, 30, 180, and 365 days) or a smaller amount of money available immediately; (b) 10 bites of food after one of several delays (1, 2, 5, 10, and 20h) or a smaller number of bites available immediately; (c) $10 at one of several probabilities (0.9, 0.75, 0.5, 0.25, 0.1) or a smaller amount of money to be received for sure; and (d) 10 bites of food at one of several probabilities (0.9, 0.75, 0.5, 0.25, 0.1) or a smaller number of bites to be received for sure. Median indifference points for all participants across each task were well described using the hyperbolic discounting function. Results suggest that percent body fat predicted discounting for hypothetical food, but not money, using regression analyses with the entire sample and when comparing individuals in the high and low quartiles for PBF. None of the other dietary variables (body mass index, subjective hunger, and time since last meal or snack) were related to discounting patterns. This suggests that individuals with high PBF may exhibit heightened sensitivities to delay and probability when making decisions about food.

Probability and delay discounting of erotic stimuli.

Adult undergraduate men (n=38) and women (n=33) were categorized as erotica "users" (n=34) and "non-users" (n=37) based on their responses to screening questions and completed computerized delay and probability discounting tasks concerning hypothetical money and erotica. Erotica users discounted the value of erotica similarly to money on three of the four erotica tasks; erotica non-users discounted the value of money consistent with erotica users, but not the value of erotica. Erotica users were disproportionately male, scored higher on several psychometric measures of sexuality-related constructs, and exhibited more impulsive choice patterns on the delay discounting for money task than erotica non-users did. These findings suggest that discounting processes generalize to erotic outcomes for some individuals.

Current psychopathology in previously assaulted older adults.

Older adult women age 55+ years (N = 549) were interviewed as part of a population-based epidemiological research study of lifetime experiences with physical and sexual assault and current mental health problems. Although overall rates of psychopathology were low, producing very small cells for comparison, women who reported experiencing physical assault an average of 28 years previously were more likely to present with past year substance abuse, depression, and avoidance and reexperiencing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than those with no previous physical or sexual assault. Women who reported experiencing sexual assault an average of 50 years previously were more likely to present with autonomic arousal and avoidance symptoms of PTSD than those with no prior sexual assault. The aforementioned findings should be considered with caution, however, as sample cell sizes were minimal for all but the PTSD symptom subtypes. Mental health service implications for older adults are discussed.

Mental health correlates of the victim-perpetrator relationship among interpersonally victimized adolescents.

This research examines mental health correlates of different victim-perpetrator relationships among adolescent victims of interpersonal violence. A large and nationally representative sample of adolescents (N = 4,023) responded to structured telephone interviews concerning mental health functioning (posttraumatic stress disorder-PTSD, major depressive disorder, substance abuse/dependence, and delinquency). Those reporting histories of sexual (n = 321) and/or physical (n = 688) assault were queried about specific aspects of their assaults, including their relationship with the perpetrator. After controlling for demographic and assault-related risk factors, the victim-perpetrator relationship remained a significant risk factor for mental health problems. Adolescents sexually assaulted by nonstrangers were at increased risk for PTSD; those sexually assaulted by acquaintances or people they did not know well were at increased risk for delinquency. Adolescents who were physically assaulted by a family member were at increased risk for PTSD. Explanations for the findings and the need for consistent assessment methods across related studies are discussed.