This paper describes the first prospective test comparing the five different dispositions to rash action in their prediction of different aspects of drinking behavior. Our focus was on differentiating risk for increased first-year college drinking behavior that tends to be emotion-based, i.e., increased drinking follows intense mood states, from risk that tends to be based on the need to seek thrilling stimulation. Specifically, we considered the possibility that, although emotion-based and sensation seeking-based risk may both relate to measures of drinking behavior, different aspects of drinking behavior tend to be differentially influenced by the two kinds of risk factors. As we describe below, we believe that, when the different personality risk factors are considered together, sensation seeking will predict the frequency of alcohol consumption, whereas positive urgency will predict the quantity of consumption and problematic consumption. To test this hypothesis, we separately measured drinking frequency, drinking quantity, and problem drinking. Although these three drinking variables are substantially related, they are not isomorphic. They do refer to different aspects of drinking behavior that may well be predicted differentially by different personality traits. We tested the following hypotheses.
