Write-up and bibliography of articles using the UPPS and/or UPPS-P
The UPPS-P impulsivity scale (Lynam, Smith, Whiteside, & Cyders, 2006) is a 59-item
inventory designed to measure five distinct personality pathways to impulsive behavior: (negative)
Urgency, (lack of) Perseverance, (lack of) Premeditation, Sensation Seeking, and Positive Urgency.
The first pathway, (negative) Urgency, assesses an individual’s tendency to give in to strong
impulses, specifically when accompanied by negative emotions such as depression, anxiety, or
anger. The next pathway, (lack of) Perseverance, assesses an individual’s ability to persist in
completing jobs or obligations despite boredom and/or fatigue. The third pathway, (lack of)
Premeditation assesses an individual’s ability to think through the potential consequences of his or
her behavior before acting. The fourth pathway, Sensation Seeking, measures an individual’s
preference for excitement and stimulation. The final pathway, Positive Urgency, assesses an
individual’s tendency to give in to impulses under conditions of high positive affect. The first four
pathways were assessed by the original version of the UPPS (Whiteside & Lynam, 2001); the fifth
pathway has been included based on recent work by Greg Smith and his colleagues (e.g., Cyders,
Smith, Spillane, Fischer, & Annus, 2007). Each item on the UPPS is rated on a 4-point scale from
Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree.
Anestis, M.D., Selby, E.A., Fink, E.L. & Joiner, T.E. (2007). The multifaceted role of distress
tolerance in dysregulated eating behaviors. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 40,
718-726.
Anestis, M.D., Selby, E.A., & Joiner, T.E. (2007). The role of Urgency in maladaptive behaviors.
Behavior Research and Therapy, 45, 3018-3029.
Bagby, R.M., Vachon, D.D., Bulmash, E.L., Toneatto, T., Quilty, C., & Costa, P.T.. (2007).
Pathological gambling and the Five Factor Model of personality. Personality and
Individual Differences, 43, 873-880.
Billieux, J., Van der Linden, M., & Ceschi, G. (2007). Which dimensions of impulsivity are related
to cigarette craving? Addictive Behaviors, 32, 1189-1199.
Billieux, J., Van der Linden, M., d'Acremont, M., Ceschi, G., & Zermatten, A. (2007). Does
impulsivity relate to perceived dependence on and actual use of the mobile phone? Applied
Cognitive Psychology, 21, 527-537.
Billieux, J., Rochat, L., Rebetez, M.M.L., & Van der Linden, M. (2008). Are all facets of
impulsivity related to self-reported compulsive buying behavior? Personality and
Individual Differences, 44, 1432-1442.
Claes, L., Vandereycken, W., & Vertommen, H. (2005). Impulsivity-related traits in eating disorder
patients. Personality and Individual Differences, 39, 739-749.
Cyders, M.A., & Smith, G.T. (2007). Mood-based rash action and its components: Positive and
negative urgency. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 839-850.
Cyders, M.A., & Smith, G.T. (2008). Clarifying the role of personality dispositions in risk for
increased gambling behavior. Personality and Individual Differences, 45, 503-508.
Cyders, M. A., Smith, G. T., Spillane, N. S., Fischer, S., & Annus, A. M. (2007). Integration of
impulsivity and positive mood to predict risky behavior: Development and validation of a
measure of positive urgency. Psychological Assessment, 19, 107-118.
d'Acremont, M. & Van der Linden. (2005). Adolescent impulsivity: Findings from a community
sample. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 34, 427-435.
d'Acremont, M. & Van der Linden. (2007). How is impulsivity related to depression in
adolescence? Evidence from a French validation of the cognitive emotion regulation
questionnaire. Journal of Adolescence, 30, 271-282.
d'Acremont, M. & Van der Linden, M. (2007). Memory for angry faces, impulsivity, and
problematic behavior in adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35, 313-324.
Doran, N., Cook, J., McChargue D., Myers M., & Spring, B. (2008). Cue-elicited negative affect in
impulsive smokers. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 22, 249-256.
Fischer S., Anderson K.G., & Smith G.T. (2004). Coping with distress by eating or drinking: Role
of trait urgency and expectancies. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 18, 269-274.
Fischer, S. & Smith, G.T. (2008). Binge eating, problem drinking, and pathological gambling:
Linking behavior to shared traits and social learning. Personality and Individual
Differences, 44, 789-800.
Fischer, S., Smith, G.T., & Anderson, K.G. (2003) Clarifying the role of impulsivity in bulimia
nervosa. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 33, 406-411.
Fischer, S., Smith, G.T., Annus, A., & Hendricks, M. (2007). The relationship of neuroticism and
urgency to negative consequences of alcohol use in women with bulimic symptoms.
Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 1199-1209.
Fischer, S., Smith, G.T., & Cyders, M.A. (2008). Another look at impulsivity: A meta-analytic
review comparing specific dispositions to rash action in their relationship to bulimic
symptoms. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 1413-1425 .
Fischer, S., Smith, G.T., Spillane, N.S., & Cyders, M.A. (2005). Urgency: Individual Differences in
Reaction to Mood and Implications for Addictive Behaviors. In A. Clark (Ed.), Psychology
of moods. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.
Gay, P., Rochat, L., Billieux, J., d’Acremont, M., & Van der Linden, M. (2008). Heterogeneous
inhibition processes involved in different facets of self-reported impulsivity: Evidence
from a community sample. Acta Psychologica, 129, 332-339.
Lynam, D.R. & Miller, J.D. (2004). Personality pathways to impulsive behavior and their relations
to deviance: Results from three samples. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 20, 319342.
Lynam, D.R., Smith, G.T., Whiteside, S.P., & Cyders, M.A. (2006). The UPPS-P: Assessing five
personality pathways to impulsive behavior (Technical Report). West Lafayette: Purdue
University.
Magid, V. & Colder, C.R. (2007). The UPPS impulsive Behavior scale: Factor structure and
associations with college drinking. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 1927-1937.
Miller, J.D., Flory, K., Lynam, D.R., & Leukefeld, C. (2003). A test of the four-factor model of
impulsivity-related traits. Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 1403-1418.
Mobbs, O., Ghisletta, P., & Van der Linden, M. (2008). Clarifying the role of impulsivity in dietary
restraint: A structural equation modeling approach. Personality and Individual Differences,
45, 602-606.
Parker, G., Both, L. Olley, A., Hadzi-Pavlovic, D., Irvine, P., & Jacobs, G. (2002). Defining
disordered personality functioning. Journal of Personality Disorders, 16, 503-522.
Rochat, L., Delbeuck, X., Billieux, J., d'Acremont, M.,Van der Linden, A., & Van der Linden, M.
(2008). Assessing impulsivity changes in Alzheimer disease. Alzheimer Disease &
Associated disorders, 22, 278-283.
Schmidt, R.E., Gay, P., d'Acremont, M., & Van der Linden, M. (2008). A German adaptation of the
UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale: Psychometric properties and factor structure. Swiss
Journal of Psychology, 67, 107-112.
Schmidt, RE., Gay, P., & Van der Linden, M. (2008). Facets of impulsivity are differentially linked
to insomnia: Evidence from an exploratory study. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 6, 178-192.
Schweizer, K. (2002). Does impulsivity influence performance in reasoning? Personality and
Individual Differences, 33, 1031-1043.
Selby, E.A.; Anestis, M.D., Joiner, T.E. (2008). Understanding the relationship between emotional
and behavioral dysregulation: Emotional cascades. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46,
593-611.
Smith, G.T., Fischer, S., Cyders, M.A., Annus, A.M., Spillane, N.S., McCarthy, D.M. (2007). On
the validity and utility of discriminating among impulsivity-like traits. Assessment, 14,
155-170.
Van der Linden, M., d'Acremont, M., Zermatten, A., Jermann, F., Laroi, F., Willems, S., Juillerat,
A., & Bechara, A. (2006). A French adaptation of the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale:
Confirmatory factor analysis in a sample of undergraduate students. European Journal of
Psychological Assessment, 22, 38-42.
Verdejo-Garcia, A., Bechara, A., Recknor, E.C., & Perez-Garcia, M. (2007). Negative emotiondriven impulsivity predicts substance dependence problems. Drug and Alcohol
Dependence, 91, 213-219.
Whiteside, S.P. & Lynam, D.R. (2001). The Five Factor Model and impulsivity: Using a structural
model of personality to understand impulsivity. Personality and Individual Differences, 30,
669-689.
Whiteside, S.P. & Lynam, D.R. (2003). Understanding the role of impulsivity and externalizing
psychopathology in alcohol abuse: Application of the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale.
Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 11, 210-217.
Whiteside, S., Lynam, D., Miller, J., & Reynolds, S. (2005). Validation of the UPPS impulsive
behavior scale: A four-factor model of impulsivity. European Journal of Personality, 19,
559-574.
Zermatten, A. & Van der Linden, M. (2008). Impulsivity in non-clinical persons with obsessivecompulsive symptoms. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 1824-1830.
Zermatten, A., Van der Linden, M., d’Acremont, M., Jermann, F., & Bechara, A. (2005).
Impulsivity and decision making. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 193, 647-50.