Robert E. Franken

Sensation seeking and the tendency to view the world as threatening

Two experiments are reported in which negative correlations were found between sensation seeking (SS) and the tendency to view the world as threatening and the tendency to expect negative outcomes resulting from interactions with the world. Experiment 1 found a negative correlation between SS and a scale designed to measure how negatively people perceive the outcomes of their interactions with the environment (a measure we have labeled negative self-esteem). Negative correlations were also obtained between sensation seeking (particularly the Thrill and Adventure Seeking and the Experience Seeking subscales) and several measures of anxiety. The relationship between SS and the various measures of anxiety were somewhat different for males and females. Females showed a generally stronger relationship between SS and anxiety than males. Experiment 2 found negative correlations between SS and the perception of the amount of risk associated with various activities, the perception of the amount of danger associated with various activities, and the amount of fear elicited by various activities/situations. These results provide support for the idea that high sensation seekers perceive the world as less threatening and less likely to lead to negative outcomes than do low sensation seekers.

The four dimensions of sensation seeking: a confirmatory factor analysis

Abstract The factor structure of the Sensation Seeking Scale, Form V was obtained for a large Canadian sample consisting of 299 males and 439 females. Constrained maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that both male and female factors correspond to the four-dimensional model of sensation seeking postulated by Zuckerman (1979). These findings are in close agreement with previous reports of the factor structure and psychometric indices obtained with other cultural and national groups. However, the four factors accounted for only 21% of the variation for males and 20% for females. This finding is consistent with the modest KR-20 values obtained for the test subscales. Items displaying undesirable psychometric characteristics common to the present study and the extant literature are identified.

Why do people like competition? The motivation for winning, putting forth effort, improving one's performance, performing well, being instrumental, and expressing forceful/aggressive behavior

Abstract Some people appear to be motivated by competition, whereas others are not. We hypothesized that people who are motivated by competition are motivated for at least three reasons: competition allows them to satisfy the need to win, competition provides the opportunity or reason for improving their performance, and competition motivates them to put forth greater effort that can result in high levels of performance. The purpose of this study was to see if it is possible to psychometrically identify these three types of motivation. A secondary purpose of this study was to see if it is possible to differentiate between having a preference for difficult tasks and simply liking to perform well. Factor analysis of a 27-item scale designed to identify these different motives or constructs produced five distinct factors corresponding roughly to the five hypothesized motives/constructs. The five factors were named: (1) “satisfaction that comes from improving ones performance” (IP); (2) “desire to win” (WIN); (3) “motivation to put forth effort in competitive situations” (MPFE); (4) “satisfaction that comes from performing well” (PW); (5) “preference for difficult tasks” (DIFF). A second-order factor analysis of these five scales produced two factors that roughly correspond to the distinction that has been made between ego-orientation and task-orientation. Task-orientation was found to be positively related to instrumentality, whereas ego-orientation was found to be negatively related to expressivity.

Sensation seeking and disclosure to close and casual friends

Abstract After filling out Zuckermans sensation seeking scale, participants were asked 34 questions about how likely they were to disclose personal thoughts and feelings to casual and close friend, how comportable they were in doing so, and how likely they were to encourage casual and close friends to reveal themselves. A positive relationship was found between sensation seeking and the tendency to disclose personal thoughts and feelings and the tendency to encourage others to disclose feelings. The results are consistent with the idea that high sensation seekers are inclined to be more uninhibited and open in their interactions with other people, a tendency which may help them to not only make new friends but maintain existing friendships.

Sport interest as predicted by the personality measures of competitiveness, mastery, instrumentality, expressivity, and sensation seeking

Abstract The study was designed to examine sport interest in a sample of male and female university students in order to determine if the personality measures of competitiveness, instrumentality, expressivity, and sensation seeking are predictive of sport interest as well as sport participation in a variety of sports. Factor analysis of Frankens WCMP Scale (a scale that contains a variety of questions pertaining to winning, competitiveness, mastery, and persistence) produced three factors that were named: the Motivation for High Performance Scale (MHP), the Motivation for New Learning Scale (MNL), and the Importance of Winning Scale (WIN). The emergence of the MHP and WIN as distinct factors was taken as evidence for the idea that sometimes people seek out competition in order to perform at a high level or observe others perform at a high level while at other times people seek out competition in order to be a winner of observe others as winners. MHP was the best predictor of sport interest for both males and females although WIN, the Competitiveness Scale of Spence and Helmreichs Work and Family Orientation Questionnaire (WOFO), and Instrumentality were also good predictors for certain sports. MNL, the Mastery Scale of the WOFO, and Expressivity were significant predictors of sport interest but mainly in connection with female interest in figure skating and gymnastics. Sensation seeking was not a predictor of sport interest although certain subscales of Zuckermans Sensation Seeking Scale did predict sport interest in certain instances. Analysis of sex differences indicated that female as compared to male participants were significantly more interested in gymnastics and figure skating, whereas male as compared to female participants were significantly more interested in hockey, football, baseball and basketball, golf, tennis, and boxing. Males obtained higher scores on all of the personality measures used except expressivity (where females scored significantly higher).

Effects of stimulus size, brightness and complexity upon EEG desynchronization

Measures of duration of EEG desynchronization were taken while Ss were exposed to a series of slides varying, in complexity as well as size and brightness. There was a positive relation between duration of EEG desynchronization and level of complexity but no effect due to size or brightness. Significant habituation to temporal as well as spatial aspects of complexity were observed.

The need to win is not adaptive: the need to win, coping strategies, hope and self-esteem

Abstract In a previous paper we reported the factor analytic development of a scale that differentiates people, among other things, in terms of their need to win (WIN), their need to perform well (PW) and their preference for difficult tasks (DIFF). This paper presents correlations between WIN, PW and DIFF and various personality/coping measures. The correlations indicate that people with a strong need to win as compared with people who like to perform well or like difficult tasks tend to have poorer coping skills (e.g., tend to engage in denial and become behaviorally and mentally disengaged when stressed), tend to see the world as more hostile (e.g., “it is a dog-eat-dog world”), tend to have an entity view of intelligence/skills (e.g., intelligence is fixed), tend to view the route to success as coming from such things as modeling and appearance. In addition, people with a need to win tend to have poorer self-esteem (SE) and tend to be lower in hope (HOPE) than people who like to perform well (PW) and people who like difficult tasks (DIFF). These results are consistent with the idea that people with a need to win tend to have an ego orientation whereas people who like to perform well and who like difficult tasks tend to have a mastery orientation.

A psychometric evaluation of the exercise salience scale

Abstract The psychometric properties of the Exercise Salience Scale (ESS), an instrument designed to assess exercise dependence, were investigated by administering the scale to 74 university undergraduate students who also rated themselves as to exercise dependence. Indicative of the scales construct validity, a high correlation between self-ratings and ESS scores was observed. Factoranalysis produced a 2 factor solution, instead of a 6 factor solution corresponding to the 6 a priori defined attributes of exercise dependence. The 2 factors were labeled “Response Omission Anxiety” and “Response Persistense”. These 2 factors are consistent with a free-operant avoidance model of exercise dependence.

Sensation seeking and participation in aerobic exercise classes

Abstract The structured and formal nature of aerobic exercise classes was predicted to be more attractive to low than to high sensation seekers. This relationship was investigated by administering Zuckermans (1979) Sensation-Seeking Scale, Form V and a questionnaire which probed various aspects of aerobic exercise participation (e.g. patterns of attendance, motivations for starting and continuing, and social aspects of the activity) to 177 females who were currently enrolled in aerobic exercise classes. Aerobic exercise participants were found to score lower on sensation seeking than did the individuals of comparable age groups of Australians or Canadian students.

Predicting memory for pictures from rankings of interestingness, pleasingness, complexity, figure-ground and clarity.

Pictures used in the test phase of a picture-recognition task were ranked by 10 university students for interestingness, pleasingness, complexity, figure-ground, and clarity. The scale values obtained from these rankings were then correlated with the errors made by other subjects in the test phase of the picture-recognition task. Figure-ground and clarity were found, for the most part, to be reliable predictors of the errors made to both the “old” and “new” subsets of pictures in two experiments. Complexity, while not as consistent a predictor of either figure-ground or clarity, was a reasonably good predictor. Interestingness and pleasingness were not reliable predictors of errors.