SENSATION SEEKING 1

Running Head: SENSATION SEEKING

Sensation Seeking, its Quantification, and Outcomes

Paul R. Juralowicz

Ballenas Secondary school

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Quantifying human emotion, wants, needs, and other psychological desires is

complicated, if not impossible. In other sciences, variables can be quantified, such as mass in

grams, distance in meters, and volume in litres. There is no established SI unit for love, sadness,

or any other emotion. There have been strides to quantify some of humanitys psychological

needs. One of the more thoroughly subjects is that of sensation seeking. Sensation seeking is

the need for varied, novel, and complex sensations and experiences, and the willingness to take

physical and social risks for the sake of such experiences (Zuckerman, 1979, p. 10). In essence,

it is a scale to determine if an individual needs to seek out activities such as partying, hiking,

sports, or other highly stimulating events. On its own, the scale can say how a person enjoys his

or her free time. The interesting part of this scale is how it correlates with various other subjects,

such as various forms of risk taking. This includes dangerous driving practices, a variety of

sexual experiences, alcohol use, drug use, and minor criminality (Arnett, 1994, para. 2). The

methodology of calculating how much sensation a subject seeks and its correlation with various

risk factors has been improved and simplified since the scales inception in 1979. Research will

continue to a point where the correlation between the scale and risk taking nears 100%,

and with this new-found knowledge of how to quantify sensation seeking, researchers will

continue to quantify other human emotions and wants.

Sensation seeking was first defined by a researcher, and now expert in the field,

Zuckerman (1979). He describes sensation seeking as how people try to seek out activates that

offer varied and complex sensations (Zuckerman, 1979, p. 10). He then developed a scale to

judge how much sensation the participant seeks. He dubbed this the Sensation Seeking Scale

(Zuckerman, 1979, p. 10). He used this scale to determine how much sensation a participant

seeks, and some other factors about the participant. These included if the subject participated in a
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variety of activities, whether it be strenuous such as skiing or mountain climbing, or risky such

as drug use, dangerous driving, etc. This allowed Zuckerman (1979) to derive a multitude of

conclusions. Firstly, the scale seemed to work well, and was accurate, very important for the

first use of a scale. Secondly, that the amount of sensation a participant seek correlates with how

much risk the participant takes and if the participant enjoy strenuous activities (Zuckerman,

1979, p. 10). This showed that the scale had some use, and was able to quantify a human need.

One study conducted by Horvath and Zuckerman (1992) used the sensation seeking scale

to find the relationship between sensation seeking impulsivity and appraisal of risk. To do this,

they developed an additional scale that was used along with the Sensation Seeking Scale to see

the correlation. The General Risk Appraisal Scale (GRAS) had participants respond to four

questions for each of the 30 risky activities (Horvath & Zuckerman, 1992, para. 13). After a

scenario was given, the participant would be asked about how they perceive their chance of

receiving a negative outcome (own risk appraisal), how many times they did said activity,

estimate the chance of a peer similar to them receiving a negative outcome (peer risk appraisal),

and an estimate of the percentage of peers who engage in said activity (Horvath & Zuckerman,

1992, para. 13). The GRAS and Sensation Seeking Scale was then given to 447 undergraduates.

Firstly, they found that the correlation between their own and peer risk appraisal was so high that

it has became a redundant measure. According to Horvath and Zuckerman (1992), [the

participant] makes little distinction between the riskiness of activities for themselves and for

their peers (para. 22). Next, the correlation between how often participants were active in said

activity and how likely they though peers were to do said activity was moderate to high (Horvath

& Zuckerman, 1992, para. 23). This makes sense as people tend to surround themselves with

like minded individuals. Finally, they found that people who had scored highly on the Sensation
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Seeking Scale also sought higher risk activities more frequently (Horvath & Zuckerman, 1992,

para. 23). The Sensation Seeking Scale paired with the GRAS showed correlation was there, but

it was somewhat weak. Even in this study, the Sensation Seeking Scale was starting to show its

age and embedded problems.

The Sensation Seeking Scale was not perfect, which is to be expected with early

scientific theories. Notably, researcher Arnett (1994) cites four main issues with the Sensation

Seeking Scale. Firstly, a forced choice system is used, which may be frustrating and perplexing

to respondents who feel that both (or neither) of the choices apply to them (Arnett, 1994, para.

3). Typically, in this format most question would have two answers, being yes or no. This

can cause issues with questions such as dealing with substance use, as those who seldom use a

substance are in the same group as those who use a substance often. One benefit of this system

is that it easily shows noncompliance in answers of the questions. Secondly, the scale contains

several questions concerning strenuous physical activatesskiing, mountain climbing, etc.

which calls into question the assumption that age differences in responses actually indicate age

differences in sensation seeking, rather than age differences in physical strength and endurance

(Arnett, 1994, para. 3). Thirdly, and most minorly, some of the vocabulary present in the

questionnaire are dated and reflect the idioms of the early-1970s (Arnett, 1994, para. 3). The

fourth, and largest problem is how the questionnaire includes numerous questions on the subject

of substance abuse and sexual behaviours (Arnett, 1994, para. 4). This suggests that a reported

relation between sensation seeking and these types of behavior may be no more than a relation

between questions about these types of behavior and sensation seeking (Arnett, 1994, para. 4).

Arnett (1994) set to construct a new measure that avoided the limitations and errors of the

original Sensation Seeking Scale. The new scales development was based around four
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guideposts. The scale should be composed on items that focus on novelty and intensity of

stimulations of the sense (Arnett, 1994, para. 9) as opposed to novelty and complexity (Arnett,

1994, para. 5). The scale should have responses in a Likert-type format (Arnett, 1994, para. 9).

Questions with this format have answers ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree.

The scale will not have items that are intrinsically age-related, such as items that involve

physical strength or stamina (Arnett, 1994, para. 9). Finally, sensations seeking can be

experienced in many ways, whether they be antisocial or socially acceptable. This depends on

the individuals environmental acceptance of said activities. This means that the scale should

not contain items that involve illegal or norm-breaking behavior (Arnett, 1994, para. 9). The

question of whether sensation seeking is related to these behaviors is important, but it should not

be included as part of the definition and measurement of sensation seeking.

With the new scale constructed Arnett (1994) conducted two studies too test if his scale

correlated with risk behavior more accurately than Zuckermans (1979) scale. First test sample

consisted of 116 adolescents enrolled in public high school in suburban Atlanta, GA (Arnett,

1994, para. 10). The students completed the new scale, the Sensation Seeking Scale, and a quiz

about their participation in risky activities. Arnett (1994) found that new scale significantly

correlated with driving while intoxicated, driving at over 80 mph, driving greater than 20 mph

over the speed limit, racing in a car, passing another car in a no-passing zone, sex with someone

not known well, marijuana use, vandalism, theft of something worth < $50, and theft of

something worth > $50 (para. 14). Also, the new scale correlated with risk activates more than

the Sensation Seeking Scale for all risk activates (Arnett, 1994, para. 14). The Sensation

Seeking Scale only majorly correlated with driving while intoxicated and marijuana use (Arnett,

1994, para. 14). Arnetts (1994) second study consisted of 139 adolescents and 38 adults (all
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parents of the adolescents) (Arnett, 1994, para. 16). The students where from the same school,

but one year after the first study, and none had taken the study from last year (Arnett, 1994, para.

16). The structure of questions was the same as study one, but the California Psychological

Inventory (CPI) was included to test the validity of the new scale. Again, it was found that the

new scale correlated with risk behavior among adolescents, including driving while intoxicated,

driving at high speeds, racing in a car, passing in a no-passing zone, having sex with someone

not known well, illegal drug use, cigarette smoking, and vandalism (Arnett, 1994, para. 18).

Unlike study one, the new scale did not correlate with small/large theft or marijuana use (Arnett,

1994, para. 18). Overall, the adults sought out sensation significantly less than their children

(Arnett, 1994, para. 19). With reference to the CPI, in adolescents, sensation seeking

significantly correlated with aggression, but for adults the correlation was insignificant (Arnett,

1994, para. 19). Finally, for both studies males had a higher sensation seeking than females over

all, in both adolescents and adults (Arnett, 1994, para. 20). These two studies showed that the

new scale was a valid measure of sensation seeking, and progressed researchers ability to

correlate various aspects with sensation seeking more closely than with the old Sensation

Seeking Scale. Up to this point, researchers had studied the sensation seeker ad nauseum, but

have rarely compared them to sensation avoiders.

The differences between sensation seekers and avoiders was assumed to be how much

they seek risk, but it was seldom tested. To test the stark differences between seekers and

avoiders, Heino, Molen, and Wilde (1996) sought to test how seekers and avoiders react in an

automotive environment. The researchers found 21 male sensation avoiding and 21 male

sensation seeking participants between the ages of 20 and 30 who drove a modified 1985 Volvo

station wagon on the free way either a prescribed distance or a distance of the participants
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choosing away from a modified Peugeot 305 GTD Break (Heino, Molen, & Wilde, 1996, pp. 73-

74). If they choose the prescribed distance of fifteen meters, if they followed at less than twelve

or greater than 18 meters, they where notified by a researcher to correct their distance (Heino,

Molen, & Wilde, 1996, para. 13). The Peugeot 305 was at a constant speed of 110 km/h, and the

participants heart rate was recorded before, during, and after the experiment (Heino, Molen, &

Wilde, 1996, para. 13). It was found that for self chosen distance, sensation avoiders followed

with an average time-headway of 1.82 seconds, while seekers followed with an average headway

of 1.18 seconds (Heino, Molen, & Wilde, 1996, para. 21). In the prescribed distance, avoiders

followed with 0.56 seconds of headway, while avoiders followed with 0.53 seconds of headway

(Heino, Molen, & Wilde, 1996, para. 21). On the subject of heart rate, the difference between

the heart rate at free following and prescribed following was nearly five times large for sensation

avoiders compared to sensation seekers (Heino, Molen, & Wilde, 1996, para. 24). This

experiment shed light on how sensations avoiders not only tend to take less risks, but also get

more nervous than sensation seekers when they are forced into a risky situation.

As researchers furthered their understanding of sensation seeking, they neared the point

where their only goal was to shorten the required questionnaire. Zuckermans (1979) original

Sensation Seeking Scale was fairly large, consisting of forty forced choice questions, and its

correlation ended up being poor. Arnetts (1994) scale was twenty questions, and correlated

more accurately. Researchers Hoyle, Stephenson, Palmgreen, Lorch, & Donohew (2002)

developed the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS) (para. 1). As the name entails, the

questionnaire is very short, consisting only of eight questions, or one fifth the length of

Zuckermans scale (Hoyle et al, 2002, pp. 402-403). The BSSS was designed to have the same

measures as Sensation Seeking Scale, but to have Likert-type response formats, be significantly
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shorter, and continue to work similarly with all ages, genders, and ethnic groups (Hoyle et al,

2002, para. 7). The major benefit with this form would be that since it is smaller, it is much

easier to include on larger questionnaires that survey a large test group. A study would only end

up addingand having to record an extra eight questions, as opposed to forty or twenty.

With the BSSS, the researchers first collected data from 1263 high school students from

grades eight through eleven. They found that the score collected by the BSSS [paralleled] those

from the psychometric analyses of the lengthy counterpart to [the BSSS], the [Sensation Seeking

Scale] (Hoyle, Stephenson, Palmgreen, Lorch, & Donohew, 2002, para. 19). Next, to further

confirm the BSSS validity, they asked 6368 adolescents in grade seven through twelve to answer

both the BSSS and a questionnaire concerning opinions and experiences with various drugs

(Hoyle et al, 2002, pp. 407-408). Of all studies, this had the largest survey size, most likely due

to the length of the BSSS. Again, as reflected by previous well documented studies on the

relation of sensation seeking and drug use, the BSSS and questionnaire concerning opinion and

use of drugs correlated in the expected pattern (Hoyle et al, 2002, para. 30). Both studies show

how the BSSS is as consistent as previous sensation seeking methods and it is much shorter.

As research into sensation seeking continued, the method of how much sensation a

person seeks hastened, and correlation of sensation seeking to various risk factors increased.

There are obvious correlations between sensation seeking and risk, and said correlation has been

more accurately detected by more modern scales. Therein lies the problem with this subject

area. Researchers are still clinging to Zuckermans (1979) old sensation seeking scale. Even

though both Arnett (1994) and the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (2002) have shown that a

newer scale can correlate more accurately and take less time to complete, researchers continue to

cling to the Sensation Seeking Scale. For progress to be made in the field, there needs to be a
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new scale created that takes aspects of all past attempts of a sensation seeking scale, and is

widely accepted by the fields scientific community. Once that scale is out there, researchers can

continue to further their understanding and quantification of sensation seeking, and use their

knowledge to quantify other human emotions.

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References

Arnett, J. (1994). Sensation seeking: A new conceptualization and a new scale. Personality and

Individual Differences,16(2), 289-296. doi:10.1016/0191-8869(94)90165-1

Heino, A., Molen, H. H., & Wilde, G. J. (1996). Differences in risk experience between

sensation avoiders and sensation seekers. Personality and Individual Differences,20(1),

71-79. doi:10.1016/0191-8869(95)00152-v

Horvath, P., & Zuckerman, M. (1993). Sensation seeking, risk appraisal, and risky

behavior. Personality and Individual Differences,14(1), 41-52. doi:10.1016/0191-

8869(93)90173-z

Hoyle, R. H., Stephenson, M. T., Palmgreen, P., Lorch, E. P., & Donohew, R. (2002). Reliability

and validity of a brief measure of sensation seeking. Personality and Individual

Differences,32(3), 401-414. doi:10.1016/s0191-8869(01)00032-0

Zuckerman, M. (1979). Sensation seeking: Beyond the optimum level of arousal. Hillsdale, NJ:

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.