There are individual differences in the propensity to engage in ill-considered behaviors when experiencing intense emotion; these individual differences appear to be reflected in a broad trait called urgency, and its two facets; positive urgency (the tendency to engage in rash actions when experiencing extreme positive affect) and negative urgency (the tendency to engage in rash actions when experiencing extreme negative affect). The repeated tendency to engage in rash, ill-considered action when experiencing intense emotions increases the likelihood that one will engage in risky behaviors, and do so at problem levels. The urgency traits are structurally distinct from other dispositions to rash action (such as sensation seeking or a failure to plan) and predict different aspects of risky behavior from them. Positive and negative urgency are positively correlated with traits measuring subjective distress/neuroticism and negatively correlated with traits measuring conscientiousness and agreeableness.
