Impulsive People: Their 5 Characteristic Traits And Habits
To what extent are we able to control our most emotional and passionate side? Most human beings are able to control their impulses, since experience and learning teach us that sacrificing everything to satisfy a need immediately does not usually pay off.
However, in some cases this is only half learned. And it is that there are a lot of impulsive people, people with serious difficulties when confronting these kinds of desires. In this article we will see what the habits and traits of this type of psychological profile are and how its actions are explained.
Among the traits, habits and propensities of impulsive people, the following stand out.
1. They do not tolerate waiting well
One of the most important psychological traits is the ability to delay of gratification, which has to do with what our limit is when it comes to refraining from enjoying in the present in order to enjoy more in the future. This is a characteristic that is absent in boys and girls who are just a few years old but that, as we grow, is improved.
Impulsive people tend to have a greater capacity to delay gratification than children, but relatively low for adults. This is noticeable in their propensity to manage their money, consume food and even interact with other people (many times we must make sacrifices to improve our social insertion).
Procrastination is the habit of leaving for another day what should be done in the present (or even in the past, and has not yet been done). That is to say, constantly postponing an obligation or responsibility
Typically, this goes hand in hand with a feeling of loss of control, as if some mysterious force is pushing us not to complete a task even though we rationally know we should do it now. In many cases, this action is rationalized after a while, creating a pseudo-rational argument that allows us to feel better about ourselves.
Impulsive people are notable procrastinators, and that is why it is very common that they do not fulfill their commitments within the agreed deadlines, on the one hand, or that they do so poorly, due to poor time management.
3. They show compensatory behaviors
The fact of constantly giving in to impulsivity causes more problems to be added to the problems that life already presents to us. In situations of frustration impulsive people show a greater tendency to fall into compensatory behaviors.
These types of actions are a way of release anxiety in a thoughtless, automatic and immediate way For example, touching your hair a lot, walking in circles, or, typically, eating.
And unplanned visits to the kitchen are a habit that marks the daily lives of impulsive people. The possibility of “distracting” yourself by consuming sweet products or those with a lot of carbohydrates is very seductive for those who feel anxiety and stress but cannot find a way to end the source of this state, since that would entail meeting medium or long-term goals.
On the other hand, in some cases these compensatory actions can become so serious that they are clinically significant, evolving to, for example, trichotillomania, bulimia nervosa or cutting (phenomena that can have many other causes).
4. They are prone to anger
Conflicts in which it is easy for our angry emotions to be expressed are a trap for impulsive people, since it is difficult for them to maintain a constructive attitude that allows them to transform the conflict into a fit between positions with their own interests. In other words, they fall into anger easily
This means that in a conflict the non-impulsive party starts from a situation of advantage, since its range of possible reactions is greater and, at the same time, it can better predict the behavior of the person who is characterized by its impulsiveness.
Of course, another implication of this is that impulsive people are bad at mediating arguments, since they will easily take a stand against someone.
5. Tendency towards impulsive purchases
All marketing in general aims to provide a commercial outlet for products or services by ensuring that certain conditions are met so that what is offered is available and irresistible.
Impulsive people are unusually easy to convince pay for something they didn’t even think about when they started their shopping round Something as simple as appropriate packaging or a catchy slogan can be enough to make them take action. The same goes for “second-hand deals,” as they add a reason to buy right away without thinking too much about it.
How is impulsivity explained?
There are several theories that try to explain the phenomenon of impulsivity. One of the first and most remembered, for example, is that of Sigmund Freud, according to which impulsivity is the expression of the force that the Id has over the Ego and the Superego.
However, today the most accepted explanation is that impulsivity is a consequence of an underdeveloped executive system. The executive system is the set of neural networks involved in attention management and in establishing objectives.
While the influences of the limbic system are sufficient for short-term goals, long-term goals depend on abstract reasoning processes that sometimes do not have enough strength to postpone the satisfaction of a need.
