Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify three subfactors of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale(BIS) - Cognitive, Motor, and Nonplanning Impulsiveness - in Korean university students. In addition, this study was done to test the gender differences. The BIS was administered to 189 male and 165 female university students. Results of the factor analysis of the BIS scores showed seven factors which suggest the variety of impulsivenss of the subject group. When the number of factors was limited to three to compare with Barratt's original scale, the items of the subfactors were confounded with each other. These results were interpreted that the impulsivity of Korean students did not differentiate more than Americans. In the result of one way analysis of variance to test the gender difference, the male group showed significantly higher scores on the Motor and Cognitive subfactors than the female group. But in the comparison of the Non-planning subfactor, gender difference was not significant. The structure of the subfactors in the male and female group showed smiliarity only in female group to the structure of the BIS. It was suggested that it is desirable to consider the gender differences in interpreting the scores of the BIS.