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The Price of Adventure and Thrill: Do You Know How High Sensory Seekers View Risk?
Sensation seeking is a personality trait that causes people to seek varied, novel, rich, and intense experiences and sensations, and to take physical, social, legal, and financial risks as a result. While not every activity associated with this trait carries with it risk, it is often ignored, tolerated, or minimized, or even seen as a source of added excitement to the activity.
According to research by Marvin Zuckerman, high sensation seekers have a higher need for stimulation and tend to pursue high levels of stimulation in their lives.
Zuckerman first proposed this concept in 1969 and designed a test based on this concept called the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS). The test is designed to assess individual differences in sensory stimulation preferences and focuses on how much stimulation people need to reach optimal levels of arousal. It is worth noting that high sensation seekers tend to feel unpleasant when their sensory stimuli are not satisfied.
Four Aspects of Sensation Seeking
The qualities of sensory seeking can be divided into four areas:
- Thrill and adventure seeking: This includes a desire for outdoor activities associated with unusual sensations and risks, such as skydiving, scuba diving, high-speed driving, and flying.
- Experience seeking: The search for new sensory or psychological experiences through unconventional choices; this may also include psychedelic experiences, social rebellion, and the desire to associate with nontraditional people.
- Permissiveness: A preference for "out of control" activities, such as wild parties, excessive drinking, and lawless behavior.
- Boredom sensitivity: Intolerance of repetitiveness or boring people, and restlessness in response to these situations.
High sensation seekers typically display a high need for stimulation in their lives.
Associations in personality models
Zuckerman found that although other psychologists such as Eysenck and Costa and McCrae viewed this trait as a correlate of extraversion, Zuckerman's factor analysis showed that sensation seeking was relatively Independent of other major personality dimensions. Similar studies have shown that sensation seeking, especially the experience seeking component, is positively correlated with openness to experience. Furthermore, there was a negative correlation between agreeableness and sensation seeking in the NEO-PI-R.
The impact of high-risk behaviorHigh sensation seekers tend to drive at high speeds, and both men and women are more likely to ignore traffic rules and engage in high-risk behaviors. The study found that value and risk perception variables also had a significant impact on sensation seeking and risky driving behavior. Furthermore, there is a link between alcoholism and sensation seeking, with indulgence and experience seeking being particularly associated with alcoholism.
Sensation seekers tend to associate themselves with peers who have similar levels of sensation seeking, which further influences drug and alcohol use.
Career Choice Trends
When it comes to career choices, high sensation seekers are more likely to choose careers that involve novel, stimulating, and non-traditional activities, as well as unstructured tasks that require flexibility. In contrast, low sensory seekers prefer structured, defined jobs, including housework or teaching.
Association with bipolar disorder
People with bipolar disorder are more likely to engage in social risk behaviors. The study showed that people with bipolar disorder scored lower on the risk-taking and excitement-seeking aspects of the excitement-seeking scale, but scored higher on the indulgence aspect.
ConclusionSensation seeking is a complex personality trait that not only affects an individual's life choices but may also play an important role in risky behavior. As we gain a deeper understanding of this trait, we may be able to better understand the appeal of risk-taking and its potential social impact. So, how should we find a balance between the pursuit of excitement and risk?
