Mood-based rash action and its components: Positive and negative urgency

In two studies, the authors further validated measures of the construct of positive urgency (the tendency to act rashly while in a positive mood), tested its distinctness from negative urgency, and placed the two constructs in an overall framework for understanding multiple dispositions to rash action. Using a multitrait, multimethod design, they documented convergent validity for positive urgency across two methods of assessment and discriminant validity between positive urgency and each of four other impulsivity-like traits. Using confirmatory factor analysis, they provided support for a 3-factor understanding of disposition to rash action: a mood-based disposition, of which positive and negative urgency are facets; a deficits-in-conscientiousness disposition, of which lack of planning and lack of perseverance are facets; and sensation seeking. They demonstrated that positive and negative urgency differentially predicted, respectively, positive mood-based rash action and negative mood-based rash action.