Emotional Rapid Response Impulsivity in Incarcerated Men and Non-Incarcerated Controls

Abstract

ABSTRACT So far, few studies have assessed emotional rapid response impulsivity (RRI) in incarcerated men. Available studies use varying methodological approaches and show mixed results, but incarcerated individuals are more likely to be impaired by emotional RRI. None of these studies, however, reported on any correlational or regression analysis assessing whether emotional RRI was linearly related to antisocial behavior in general or aggression and misconduct in particular. The current study investigated whether incarcerated individuals (n = 283) show impaired performance on an emotional Go/No-Go task compared to non-incarcerated controls (n = 51), and whether performance is associated with increased trait aggression, and within-prison misconduct. The results indicate that incarcerated individuals indeed show impaired emotional RRI compared to non-incarcerated controls, irrespective of emotional condition, but impaired emotional RRI was not related to trait aggression or within-prison misconduct. The impairment, relative to non-offending controls, could therefore be related to other factors than their anti-social behavior, which could hamper the use of emotional RRI in risk assessment or forensic clinical practice.