Sensation seeking is a trait we all have and includes the search for complex and new experiences. Thrill Seekers, people with high-sensation seeking personalities, crave exotic and intense experiences even when physical or social risks are involved. This course helps learners examine the remarkable world of the high-sensation seeking personality and explores the lifestyle, psychology, and neuroscience behind thrill seekers.
Components of Sensation Seeking
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The Psychology of Thrill Seekers
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What Is Thrill Seeking and Sensation Seeking?
In this week, we'll examine the curious beginnings of sensation-seeking research, discuss the four components that make up sensation seeking, and discuss the profile of a high sensation seeker.
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Kenneth CarterProfessor of Psychology
Oxford College
Let's discuss the components of sensation seeking.
In our last lesson, we looked at the history of sensation seeking research.
Now let's examine how sensation seeking has been described.
But one last warning before we go into this lesson.
Be sure you've taken the brief sensation seeking survey.
It takes less than three minutes to complete.
And if you go through this lesson before you take the brief sensation seeking
survey, it could influence your scores.
Dr. Marvin Zuckerman recognized that sensation seeking is complex.
It's made up of four distinct components, each of which contributes
to an individual's unique way of seeking or avoiding situations.
Let's take a look at each of them.
First, there's thrill and adventure seeking.
When you think of a thrill seeker, the thrill and
adventure seeking component of sensation seeking probably comes to min.
This component of sensation seeking is all about the joy of at least moderately
frightening activities.
Those with high scores in thrill and adventure seeking,
try to find physical activities that are exciting and risky.
Maybe it's racecar driving, or rollercoasters, or
wing suits, it's the danger that beckons the thrill and
adventure seeker, risks may be ignored, tolerated, or minimized.
Next, there's experience seeking.
Even if you're not an extreme thrill and adventure seeker,
there may be a component of sensation seeking that applies to you.
So while you might not like to sky dive, you may exhibit a sensation seeking trait
associated with people who enjoy new, complex, and
intense sensations and experiences of the mind, and of the senses.
Experience seekers find their sensation in travel, food, cultures and people.
The third component of sensation seeking is disinhibition.
Disinhibition involves our ability to be spontaneous, it includes searching for
opportunities to let loose.
People with strong disinhibition tendencies will act regardless
of potential consequences while those with low disinhibition tendencies control their
behavior more carefully and think through everything, they look before they leap.
The fourth and
final component of sensation seeking is called boredom susceptibility.
Boredom susceptibility boils down to your ability to tolerate the absence of
external stimulation.
It measures how easily you become bored and
how irritated you might get when you do get bored.
The sensation seeking survey comes in two different formats.
The full sensation seeking survey consist of 44 choice questions and
takes about 15 minutes to complete.
The brief sensation survey consists of eight questions on a Likert-type scale.
It's quick and takes only about five minutes to finish.
Now both links were provided for
you in the reading page prior to the video lecture.
If you haven't taken it, feel free to pause the video now and
complete the Brief Sensation Seeking survey before resuming.
Let's interpret your score for the Brief Sensation Survey or the BSS.
It's important to remember that there are no good or bad scores.
The survey just describes the four components of sensation seeking.
After completing the survey, you should have received two sets of scores,
your overall score and your score on each of the four components.
Let's take a look at your overall score first.
Overall scores on the BSS will range from 8 to 40.
If you score between 8 and 16, you are a low sensation seeker.
You're more likely to be a chill seeker than a thrill seeker.
A score from 16 to 28 is average.
The average sensation seeker may enjoy some new things but
doesn't want to get too stimulated.
Anything over 28 means you're a high sensation seeker.
You're more likely to feel a need for new experiences or stimulation.
And you also might find yourself easily bored.
But the total score doesn't tell the whole story.
Your score each of the four components looks blended type of sensation secure
you are.
Remember, through an adventure seeking is you desire to engage in an activities
involving some physical danger or risks.
For throwing an adventure seeking,
a score under four means you enjoy calmer activities.
Between four and seven, means you like activities that get your blood pumping
anything over seven means you're drawn to the most exciting experiences.
Experience seeking is the quest for sensations of the mind and of the senses.
Experience seeking scores under four,
mean you're comfortable with familiar experiences.
Between four and
seven, means you look like a balance of experiences of the mind and of the senses.
Over seven, well that means you crave the most interesting experiences.
Boredom susceptibility describes how easily you get bored and
how irritated you become when bored.
People who score under four can stay with the familiar for a long time.
Between four and seven means you may like traditions but
you need variations every now and then.
Over seven, that means you can get easily bored and crave something new.
This inhibition is your ability to be unrestrained.
Lower scores under four mean that you like to have fun but have clear limits.
Between four and seven indicates you go wild at times but
you won't just do anything.
Over seven you may not stop to ask what people think before doing
something that sounds fun.
In the next lesson,
we'll look more at the types of sensation seekers there are out there.
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