This article examined the relationship between impulsiveness and attitudes toward institutional authority among Australian secondary school students. Reliable questionnaire measures of these constructs were completed by 48 boys and 57 girls, about 14 years of age. Correlations between impulsiveness and attitude to authority differed between the sexes, with a significant negative correlation of −.43 being obtained for boys only.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
EysenckS. B. J. (1981) Impulsiveness and anti-social behavior in children. Current Psychological Research, 1, 31–37.
2.
EysenckS. B. J.EysenckH. J. (1977) The place of impulsiveness in a dimensional system of personality description. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 16, 57–68.
3.
HarrisI. D.HowardK. I. (1981) Perceived parental authority: Reasonable and unreasonable. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 10, 273–284.
4.
HeavenP. C. L. (1989) Orientation to authority and its relation to impulsiveness. Psychology: Research and Reviews, 8, 38–45.
5.
HeavenP. C. L.RigbyK. (1987) Attitudes to authority and the EPQ. Journal of Social Psychology, 127, 359–360.
6.
RigbyK. (1982) A concise scale for the assessment of attitudes towards institutional authorities. Australian Journal of Psychology, 34, 195–204.
7.
RigbyK.SchofieldP.SleeP. T. (1987) The similarity of attitudes towards personal and impersonal types of authority among adolescent schoolchildren. Journal of Adolescence, 10, 241–253.
8.
RigbyK.SleeP. T. (1987) Eysenck's personality factors and orientation toward authority among schoolchildren. Australian Journal of Psychology, 39, 151–161.
