Date of Award:

12-2008

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Psychology

Committee Chair(s)

Amy L. Odum (Committee Co-Chair), Melanie Domenech Rodríguez (Committee Co-Chair)

Committee

Amy L. Odum

Committee

Melanie Domenech Rodríguez

Committee

Timothy Shahan

Committee

Timothy Slocum

Committee

Kerry Jordan

Abstract

The present study aimed to evaluate (a) the extent to which different impulsivity measures would be related to each other and to a risk taking measure, (b) the extent to which impulsivity, risk taking, time perception and time perspective are related to each other, and (c) the extent to which these processes differ in Latino and White American students. Experiment I was conducted at Utah State University. One hundred and forty-three participants were exposed to the delay discounting, probability discounting and temporal bisection procedures, and answered the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) and the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI). Results showed that (a) the AUC for delay discounting was related to the scores on the BIS-11 scale, (b) the AUCs for delay and probability discounting were positively and significantly correlated, (c) the mean of the temporal bisection procedure was correlated with the AUC of the delay discounting procedure, (d) the scores on the ZTPI were correlated with the impulsivity measures, and (e) the scores on the ZTPI subscales were also correlated with the risk taking measure. These results suggest that different impulsivity measures may be evaluating similar decision-making processes, that impulsivity and risk taking may be different decision- making processes, and that time perception and time perspective are related to impulsivity and risk taking. Experiment II was conducted at Washington University in St. Louis, with 18 Latinos and 16 White Americans. Results show that while Latinos were more impulsive in the delay discounting procedure, their scores did not differ from the White Americans on the BIS-11. Interestingly, Latinos and White Americans did not differ on time perception, but they did differ on time perspective: Latinos scored higher on fatalism compared to White Americans.

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This work made publicly available electronically on July 7, 2011.

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