Sensation Seeking Scale
Students Name
Institution Affiliation
Sensation Seeking Scale
Question Answer 6-Scale Total Score
1 2 6-2 4
2 4 6-4 2
3 1 6-1 5
5 4 6-4 2
6 5 6-5 1
7 1 6-1 5
8 4 6-4 2
9 4 6-1 5
10 5 6-5 1
11 2 6-2 4
12 5 6-5 2
Sensation seeking is the determination and willingness to engage in adventure and experience complex feelings that are driven by the biological, social, psychological, and genetic factors affecting a person’s behavior and preferences. Sensation seeking is measured using the sensation seeking scale, which consists of several questions with a numerical rating, facilitating the calculation of a person’s feeling seeking score and their evaluation. Therefore, a sensation-seeking scale is a tool used in measuring mental aspects of an individual’s tendencies for seeking adventure. Kuderer & Kirchengast ( 2016) assets that many cases of sensation seeking are linked to behaviors such as nonconformity, impulsiveness, dominance, psychoticism, and disinhibition. Further, it has also been linked to other psychological traits such as cognitive behavior, which are also dependent on gender. However, the studies also indicate that the empirical difference between both men and women is not substantial, and it is comparable to the physical capacity to seek sensational experiences (Kuderer & Kirchengast, 2016).
Additionally, the complicated feelings sought by sensation seekers can cause some antisocial behaviors such as pathological gambling behavior, alcoholism, inability to socialize, and aggressiveness. Notably, people seeking sensational experiences have high chances of finding new adventures. Still, it may not always achieve their intended complex feelings due to various challenges such as financial, social, and political restrictions, hence, the urge to direct the energy to a different aspect of their lives, such as fighting, excessive drinking of alcohol, or drug abuse.
The sensation-seeking scale is often guided by two main elements, which are age and gender differences. As expected, people of different age brackets possess different opinions on subjects related to seeking sensation based on life’s experiences with each individual. For instance, younger people have an extreme desire to take risks due to their actual understanding of the dangers and the complications of some of the risks taken. On the contrary, older people are more considerate of a variety of best and worst-case scenarios likely to happen. Sensation seeking occurs in high levels between the ages of early teenage to young adulthood, after which the motivation declines with the advancement in age.
The second crucial element of a proper sensation seeking scale is the gender of a person. Typically, gender refers to the femininity or masculinity of a person as defined by the cultural and social beliefs of a community. Various societal settings dictate males and females are treatments that some societies treat both gender equally, thus minimizing the odds that may limit the motivation to engage in thrill-seeking behaviors that would otherwise be associated more with men (Sulejmanov et al., 2018). On the other hand, societies with a distinct separation between males and females tend to promote a man’s capacity while undermining the women’s ability to parallel the opposite gender. For instance, men and women in parts of Europe and America are likely to produce minimal differences on the sensation seeking scale because of the societal belief deeply embedded in their communities that both sexes are the same in all aspects (Sulejmanov et al., 2018). Contrary to the gender equality factor, countries of other parts of the world lean towards the superiority of the male gender, which increases the differences in the sensation seeking scale. As a result, the gender element is essential. Still, the outcomes vary based on the social setups in which the desire, willingness, and ability to engage in exciting activities such as sports, hiking, camping, and scuba diving varies based on the social backgrounds.
The sensation-seeking scale above shows my susceptibility to engage in novelty sensation experiences. The total score is 33 points, which is within the intermediate level. The middle level found between the ages between young adulthood and adulthood, where sensation-seeking begins to decline.
References
Kuderer, S., & Kirchengast, S. (2016). The association of hand preference and sensation seeking behavior. Anthropologischer Anzeiger, 73(3), 187-194. https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2016/0601
Sulejmanov, F., Spasovski, O., & Platt, T. (2018). The development of the Humor Structure Appreciation Scale and its relation to Sensation Seeking Inventory and Need for Closure Scale. The European Journal Of Humour Research, 6(1), 124. https://doi.org/10.7592/ejhr2018.6.1.sulejmanov