Clinical instrument

Impulsive-Nonconformity Scale (INS)

A 51-item true/false self-report measure of impulsive, rule-disregarding, and nonconforming tendencies. Administered only via a clinician patient link.

This is a clinical instrument. It is not publicly self-administered; a clinician assigns it through a secure patient link.

You learn how much you tend toward impulsive, unconventional behavior.

For anyone who wonders whether they tend to act on impulse and push against convention.

It comes from personality research on impulsive, rule-breaking tendencies in everyday life.

Sample result, example data. Illustrative chart with invented scores; it does not describe any real respondent.

What this test is

Welcome. A 51-item true/false self-report measure of impulsive, rule-disregarding, and nonconforming tendencies. Administered only via a clinician patient link.

The measure

The Impulsive-Nonconformity Scale (INS) was developed by Chapman and colleagues (1984). It has 51 items, each answered on a False / True scale.

Chapman, L. J., Chapman, J. P., Numbers, J. S., Edell, W. S., Carpenter, B. N., & Beckfield, D. (1984). Impulsive nonconformity as a trait contributing to the prediction of psychoticlike and schizotypal symptoms. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 172, 681-691.

At a glance

Items

Response scale

False / True

Est. time

~7 min

Access

Assigned only · no per-report charge

What it measures

Fifty-one true-or-false statements describe a pattern of acting on impulse and setting aside social rules: doing things on the spur of the moment without considering consequences, taking pleasure in breaking rules, finding it hard to put up with ordinary restrictions, holding grudges and acting on them, and having little feeling of guilt about deceiving or exploiting others. The scale concerns a broad disposition toward impulsivity and disregard of convention.

Chapman and colleagues (1984) developed the scale in the Wisconsin research program on psychosis proneness. The work followed Meehl (1962), who argued that vulnerability to serious mental illness might be identified through subtle traits in the general population, and the impulsive-nonconformity scale was intended to capture a form of vulnerability marked by poor impulse control and antisocial tendencies.

Statements answered in the keyed direction are counted. Higher totals describe stronger impulsivity, more frequent disregard of rules and less concern about the effects of one's behavior on others; lower totals describe a more restrained, conventional style. A high score describes a disposition and is not a diagnosis.

The scale is used in research on impulsivity, antisocial behavior, substance use and psychosis proneness, and in clinical assessment by professionals. On this site, the Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS) measures self-regulation, the Psychopathy scale describes callous and impulsive traits, and the Magical Ideation Scale belongs to the same research tradition.

Norms and administration

Administration is through a clinician patient link only.

Example item

“If I burped loudly while having dinner at the house of someone I knew, I would be embarrassed.”

FalseTrue

Illustrative only. During administration items are presented one screen-set at a time; response-key direction is never shown to respondents.

Scoring & interpretation

Item responses are summed within each scale (reverse-keyed items recoded first) and expressed as a percent of the maximum possible score. No normative percentile is applied — there is no verbatim-matched published norm for this exact item set.

References

Chapman, L. J., Chapman, J. P., Numbers, J. S., Edell, W. S., Carpenter, B. N., & Beckfield, D. (1984). Impulsive nonconformity as a trait contributing to the prediction of psychoticlike and schizotypal symptoms. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 172, 681–691.

Sample report preview

The report shows your total score and where it falls across the range of possible scores, followed by a plain-language explanation of what scores in that region describe. Where the instrument has published interpretive bands, the report names the band and what it means. It closes with notes on how to read the result and on when a conversation with a qualified professional may be useful.

Report contents
Section	What it shows
Score	Your scale score, computed with the published scoring key.

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