The Role of Impulsivity, Risk-Taking, and Sensation-Seeking in People Prone to Substance Abuse

Abuse and dependency have always been a social, cultural, and economic problem, especially in our society. Studies have demonstrated that some of cognitive substructures such as risk-taking, sensation-seeking, and impulsivity are related to addiction formation and some other anti-social behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine these traits of personality among individuals prone to substance abuse and also to compare them with control groups in terms of these attributes. The questionnaires were used to collect data which then was analyzed using SPSS for independent t-test. Based on findings of this study people prone to addiction are at a higher level compared with the control group in terms of impulsivity, risk-taking and sensation-seeking. While impulsivity and risk-taking were significantly different between individuals prone to addiction and normal subjects, no significant difference was found among them in term of sensation-seeking.