Impulsivity: the Barratt scale and three ways of acting too fast

You put something in an online basket just to see the price, and five minutes later it is paid for. Or you finish a sentence in a meeting and know straight away that you should have kept it to yourself. Both are impulsive, but they are different kinds of impulsivity.

Barratt's three parts

The psychologist Ernest Barratt worked on measuring impulsiveness from the late 1950s. The version used most today, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), was published in 1995 by Jim Patton, Matthew Stanford and Barratt. It has 30 items, and the analysis in that paper grouped them into three broad parts.

Attentional impulsivity is trouble keeping your mind on one task, with thoughts that jump around. Motor impulsivity is acting on the spur of the moment, before you have thought it through. Non-planning impulsivity is a focus on the present over the future, for example making decisions and spending money without thinking ahead.

What our test asks

Our impulsivity test (BIS-11 brief) uses Barratt's three parts, with five statements each, and gives you three separate scores. A few statements are close to BIS-11 items, such as "I buy things on impulse", but most are written in our own words, so this is a self-reflection tool based on the BIS-11, not the BIS-11 itself. The original asks how often each statement applies to you. Our version uses a five-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

Other examples: "My thoughts wander during important tasks" (attention), "I say things without thinking and later regret it" (motor) and "I rarely make to-do lists" (non-planning). One statement in each group describes the opposite, for example "I can concentrate on a problem for a long time", and is scored in reverse. Higher scores mean more impulsivity.

More than one trait

Other researchers split impulsivity even further. In 2001 Stephen Whiteside and Donald Lynam proposed four separate traits: acting rashly when upset, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance and sensation seeking. A person can be high on one and low on the others. Someone who plans carefully may still lose patience with long tasks, and someone who loves risky sports may be careful with money.

Acting fast is also sometimes useful. In 1990 Scott Dickman separated dysfunctional impulsivity, acting quickly when it leads to problems, from functional impulsivity, acting quickly when the situation rewards speed, and measured them as two different traits. A person can decide fast in a crisis and still rarely do things they later regret.

Using your result

Start with your highest score. High attentional impulsivity overlaps with what adults with ADHD describe, but this test is not an ADHD screen. The adult ADHD test (ASRS) is built for that question, and only a specialist can make a diagnosis. High motor impulsivity often responds to small delays: waiting a day before a purchase, or a few breaths before replying to a message. High non-planning impulsivity is often easiest to change with outside structure, such as a weekly budget or a calendar.

Impulsivity and self-control are closely linked. The self-control test and the post on self-control as habits instead of willpower look at the other side of the same problem. If your impulsivity is mostly about seeking new experiences, try the sensation seeking test.