UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale
A 59-item self-report questionnaire on five facets of the patient's impulsivity.
- Category
- Personality & impulsivity
- Items
- 59
- Recall period
- General (trait)
On this page
Administer the scale
0 of 59 completed
0%Record the patient's response to every item. Entries stay in your browser and are never sent anywhere.
Below are a number of statements that describe ways in which people act and think. For each statement, please indicate how much you agree or disagree with the statement. Be sure to indicate your agreement or disagreement for every statement below.
Introduction
The UPPS-P measures impulsivity not as a single trait but as five facets. The patient rates 59 statements about how they act and think. The resulting profile shows which kind of impulsivity is most prominent, for example acting rashly under strong negative emotions or under strong positive emotions.
What it measures
The five facets are negative urgency, (lack of) premeditation, (lack of) perseverance, sensation seeking and positive urgency. The patient answers each statement from 1 (agree strongly) to 4 (disagree strongly). After reverse-scoring the marked items, higher scores indicate more impulsive behaviour. Each facet score is the mean of its items, so all five facets are on the same metric.
When to use it
Clinicians use the UPPS-P in treatment planning when impulsivity plays a role for the patient, for example in relapses linked to strong emotions. Looking at the five facets separately shows which kind of impulsivity is involved.
Origin
The original UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale was developed by Stephen Whiteside and Donald Lynam (2001), based on the Five Factor Model of personality, with four facets. The UPPS-P (Lynam, Smith, Whiteside & Cyders, 2006) adds positive urgency, described by Cyders and colleagues (2007).
Validation
A validated German long and short version was published by Wüllhorst, Lützkendorf and Endrass (2024).
Limitations
The UPPS-P is not a diagnostic instrument and measures impulsivity as a trait, not a current state. The scoring instructions give no cutoffs; the results are read as a profile of the five facets. According to the developers, a facet score should only be calculated if at least 70% of its items are answered. With 59 items, it takes some time to complete. The questionnaire is currently only available in English here.
Frequently asked questions
- Are there cutoffs?
- No. The developers' scoring instructions give no cutoffs; the five facet means are read relative to each other and in the clinical context.
- Is there a German version?
- A validated German version exists (Wüllhorst, Lützkendorf & Endrass, 2024), but its wording is not yet available to us.
References
- Whiteside SP, Lynam DR. The Five Factor Model and impulsivity: using a structural model of personality to understand impulsivity. Personality and Individual Differences. 2001;30:669-689.
- Lynam DR, Smith GT, Whiteside SP, Cyders MA. The UPPS-P: Assessing five personality pathways to impulsive behavior. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University; 2006.
- Wüllhorst V, Lützkendorf J, Endrass T. Validation of the German long and short versions of the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology. 2024;80(10):2099-2116.
Licence & attribution
Lynam, D. R., Smith, G. T., Whiteside, S. P., & Cyders, M. A. (2006). The UPPS-P: Assessing five personality pathways to impulsive behavior. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University.
Freely available; permission not required (PhenX Toolkit).