title: Differential effects of social stress on laboratory-based decision-making are related to both impulsive personality traits and gender.
abstract: Urgency is the tendency to make impulsive decisions under extreme positive or negative emotional states. Stress, gender and impulsive personality traits are all known to influence decision-making, but no studies have examined the interplay of all of these factors. We exposed 78 men and women to a stress or a non-stress condition, and then administered the Balloon Analogue Risk Task. We found that stress effects varied as a function of gender and urgency traits. Under stress, women low in negative urgency and men high in negative urgency made fewer risky decisions. Positive urgency yielded a similar pattern. Thus, decisions under stress depend on a complex interplay between gender and impulsive personality traits. These findings have implications for clinical disorders, such as substance use disorders, in which there are known deficits in decision-making and high levels of impulsive traits.
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychological Sciences , Monash University , Melbourne , VIC , Australia.
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Wise
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychological Sciences , Monash University , Melbourne , VIC , Australia.
authors.forename: Alissa L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Phung
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychological Sciences , Monash University , Melbourne , VIC , Australia.
authors.forename: Izelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Labuschagne
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychological Sciences , Monash University , Melbourne , VIC , Australia.
authors.forename: Julie C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Stout
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012737:Sex Factors; D013060:Speech; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Decision-making; Impulsivity; Risk; Stress; Urgency