Motion sickness history, food neophobia, and sensation seeking

Motion sickness is believed to be caused by conflicting sensory signals, a situation that mimics the effects of ingesting certain toxins. Thus, one might suspect that individuals who have experienced a relatively high frequency of motion sickness may be particularly vigilant about avoiding anything that produces nausea, induding potentially nauseating toxins. Consequently, they may be more resistant to trying new foods, i.e., be more food neophobic, since unfamiliar foods can have unexpected adverse effects due to toxins or allergens. Likewise, many highly stimulating experiences can trigger motion sickness, so individuals who are more susceptible may be more prone to avoid such experiences, i.e., be less sensation seeking. Finally, it was expected that food neophobia would be more frequent in individuals low on sensation seeking tendencies. Self-reported motion sickness history in 308 adults (M= 18.8 yr.; SD = 1.6) was correlated with scores on the Arnett Inventory of Sensation Seeking and the Food Neophobia Scale. As predicted, greater history of motion sickness was associated with lower Sensation Seeking scores. Food Neophobia was not correlated with motion sickness history but, as expected, was negatively correlated (r = -.42) with scores on Sensation Seeking. Further research is recommended that measures actual sensitivity to motion sickness.     

Further validation of the shame and guilt scales of the Harder Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2

Previous research using the Harder Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2 has generally supported the validity of its subscales for the measurement of the traits of proneness to shame and guilt. This study extended the construct validity by investigating hypothesized relationships between scores on the questionnaire and several personality constructs not previously examined, including attachment style, the five personality factors assessed by the NEO-Five Factor Inventory, Sensation Seeking and Positive Affect (both from the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List-Revised). Shame and guilt scales were each expected to correlate inversely with secure attachment, Extraversion, Openness, Sensation Seeking (uninhibitidness), and Positive Affect, while they were predicted to correlate positively with Neuroticism from the NEO measure. Shame was expected to show stronger relationships than guilt with Extraversion, Openness, and Sensation Seeking. For the 41 college students results were mostly as predicted, even after shame and guilt scores were partialled for each other, thereby providing further evidence for the construct validity of the Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2 scales.     

Sensation seeking and danger invulnerability: Paths to college student risk-taking

This study examines the roles of sensation seeking and invulnerability as predictors of health compromising behaviors in a multiethnic sample of 1690 emerging adult college students (mean age = 19.8, range 18–25 years) from nine US colleges and universities. Participants completed the Arnett Sensation Seeking Inventory and the Adolescent Invulnerability Scale; and reported how often they had participated in a set of health compromising risk behaviors (i.e., substance use, impaired driving, and sexual behaviors) in the 30 days prior to assessment. Sensation seeking and danger invulnerability scores were moderately correlated (r = .30). Findings from a series of multivariate Poisson regression analyses suggest that when considered simultaneously as predictors, sensation seeking appears to be a general risk factor associated with engagement in a variety of risk behaviors, whereas danger invulnerability is primarily a factor in those risk behaviors that are less common among peers (e.g., hard drug use, casual sex, and driving while intoxicated).     

Sensation seeking of young children

Thirty-six boys and 33 girls, attending kindergatern, second-grade and fourth-grade, and their parents responded to a simplified version of the general Sensation Seeking Scale. Children's preferences for activities, puzzles, pictures, responses, foods, mazes and behaviors were also assessed. Results showed that the mean scores for the Sensation Seeking Scale of young children were much lower than scores of high school and college students, and significantly lower than the guesses of their parents. Sensation seeking was found to be related to preference for complex puzzles and pictures, to engagement in negative behaviors and to the children's knowledge about the environment. These findings suggest that the level of sensation seeking of children is related to their activities and preferences as well as their exposure to a variety of experiences.     

Externalizing behavior,the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior scale and Reward and Punishment Sensitivity

The UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior scale is a promising measure of impulsivity facets involved in the etiology of Externalizing behaviors (e.g., substance abuse, antisocial behavior, and aggression). The purpose of this study was to determine whether measures of motivational systems, specifically Reward and Punishment Sensitivity, accounted for variance in Externalizing behaviors beyond the UPPS-P scales. Undergraduates (N = 282; 50% men) completed online self-reports of alcohol and drug use, antisocial behavior, and aggression, as well as the UPPS-P and measures of Reward and Punishment Sensitivity. Principal components analysis was used to create summary Externalizing scores related to Disinhibition and Aggression. Lack of Premeditation, low Perseverance and Sensation Seeking had significant partial relationships with Disinhibition, but Reward Sensitivity accounted for additional variance. Both Reward Sensitivity and (Low) Punishment Sensitivity were related to Aggression, beyond variance explained by UPPS-P Negative Urgency and (lack of) Perseverance. Impulsivity facets appear to have differential relationships with measures of Externalizing and, although the UPPS-P accounts for a significant portion of individual differences, it does not fully account for variance associated with Reward and Punishment Sensitivity.     

The prediction of drug use among college students from MMPI, MCMI, and sensation seeking scales

This study examines the ability of five self-report assessment measures to predict college students' drug use across 12 pharmacological drug categories. Subjects were 125 female and 61 male university undergraduate students. The test battery included the following instruments: the Psychopathic Deviancy (Pd) scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI); the MacAndrew Alcoholism scale (MAC), a special scale of the MMPI; the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS); the Millon Alcohol Abuse Scale; and the Millon Drug Abuse Scale. Scores from these instruments were utilized in linear combinations to predict individual drug use outcomes as well as polydrug versus single drug use patterns. The drug categories included in this investigation are coffee, tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, tranquilizers, depressants, amphetamines, LSD, other hallucinogens, solvents, narcotics, and cocaine. Results demonstrate significant and meaningful relationships between predictors and drug use levels among college students. Weighted equations derived from linear discriminant function analyses were generally capable of accurately classifying subject's drug use levels across drug categories and in discriminating single drug use from polydrug use patterns. Typically, the Sensation Seeking Scale entered as the most powerful predictor of substance use and abuse.     

Personality characteristics of undergraduates with career interests in forensic identification

The author assessed personality scores for 47 undergraduates enrolled in a forensic identification program. Results revealed no difference between men and women enrolled in the Forensic Identification Program on subscales of the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS‐V), with the exception of Experience Seeking. Participants had lower Disinhibition scores when compared with normative data. Women scored higher on the Experience Seeking subscale of the SSS‐V and lower on the Aggression‐Hostility subscale (ZKPQ), and men had elevated scores on the Activity subscale of the ZKPQ when compared with normative findings. These findings provide a primer for greater understanding of undergraduates interested in forensic identification.     

Authoritarian and aggressive attitudes in American students

In a sample of 118 college students, scores on a measure of authoritarian attitudes were associated with scores on subscales from the Buss and Perry (1992) Aggression Questionnaire.     

Reliability and validity of the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List - Revised

A recent factor analysis of the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL) changed the Anxiety, Depression, and Hostility scales from bipolar to unipolar scales and added two new scales: Positive Affect and Sensation Seeking. Internal reliability of the MAACL-R scales, computed for normal and patient samples, was adequate for state and trait forms except for Sensation Seeking. Test-retest reliability in college students was higher for the trait form with retest intervals of from 2 to 8 weeks than for the state form with retest intervals of from 2 to 5 days. The pattern of correlations among self-, peer, and counselor ratings and the MAACL-R scales for normal and patient samples indicates improved discriminant validity and equally good convergent validity as the old scales. The use of standard scores that are indexed to the number of items checked reduced scale intercorrelations by controlling the acquiescence set.The financial support of the Weldon Springs Endowment Fund, University of Missouri at Kansas City, toward the completion of this research project is gratefully acknowledged.     

Risk-taking, death anxiety, and dreaming

Dream characteristics of 29 women from a graduate program were correlated with scores on the Sensation-Seeking and Death Anxiety scales. Significant positive correlations were obtained between Sensation Seeking and dream frequency (.38), meaningful dreams (.38), and Openness and depth of dreaming (.39) as well as between Thrill-seeking and dream frequency (.41) and meaningful dreams (.41). Death Anxiety scores positively related to the occurrence of nightmares (.37), representations of death in dreams (.55), and recurring nightmares (.38), but no support was found for a relationship between death anxiety and Sensation Seeking.     

The Schalling Sensation Seeking and Impulsivity Scales: their relationship to time perspective and time awareness, a preliminary report

This study reports use of two scales developed in 1983 by Schalling, Edman and Asberg, Impulsivity and Sensation Seeking and their association with Time Perspective. 102 first-year university students completed both scales, a time perspective questionnaire, and a time awareness scale. The convergent validity, test-retest, and split-half reliability for both the Sensation Seeking and Impulsivity scales were high. Both sensation seeking and impulsivity showed strong relationships with time awareness but not with time perspective.     

Depressive symptom manifestation and help‐seeking among Chinese college students in Taiwan

One longstanding hypothesis in the research of depression among Chinese populations is that they tend to express depressive symptoms in somatic terms, which, in turn, prevent them from seeking assistance from mental health services. This study aimed to examine the manifestation of depressive symptoms and its relationship to help‐seeking attitudes among Chinese college students. The Chinese Beck Depression Inventory‐II (BDI‐II; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996 ) and the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help: Shortened Form (ATSPPH‐SF; Fischer & Farina, 1995 ) were administered to 1039 Chinese college students in a private university in Taiwan. Factor ratio scores analyses revealed that Chinese college students generally emphasized somatic complaints compared to cognitive‐affective complaints in expressing depressive symptoms. Probably‐depressed Chinese students (BDI‐II scores?16), however, placed significantly less emphasis on somatic symptoms than did nondepressed students. Additionally, multiple regression analyses showed that while Chinese students with elevated BDI‐II scores were less likely to seek professional psychological help, neither somatic nor cognitive‐affective symptoms were correlated with their attitudes toward seeking and avoiding professional psychological help. These findings seem to run counter to the common assumption that Chinese people tend to express depression in somatic terms and that somatic complaints help to explain their reluctance to seek professional psychological assistance. The current results suggest that Chinese students with elevated depressive symptoms readily acknowledged and expressed cognitive‐affective symptoms of depression and they were likely to distance themselves from professional psychological help. However, somatic symptoms did not explain their reluctance to utilize mental health services.     

The sexual sensation seeking scale: reliability and validity within a heterosexual college student sample

The Sexual Sensation Seeking Scale (SSSS; Kalichman & Rompa, 1995) is a measure of the propensity to seek out novel or risky sexual stimulation. This measure has been consistently related to HIV-risk behavior in several different samples of gay men and with behavioral correlates of sexual permissiveness in college students. Five hundred twenty-eight college students completed the SSSS and several other sexuality and personality measures. The results reveal significant gender differences on the SSSS and similar (although stronger among women) patterns of significant correlations with sexually permissive characteristics and behaviors. Furthermore, SSSS scores were more highly correlated with sexual measures, whereas a more general measure of sensation seeking was more highly correlated with general personality measures. We discuss implications for use of the SSSS by sexuality educators and sex therapists.     

Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire (ZKA-PQ) and Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory Revised (TCI-R): a comparative study

The aim of this study was to compare the psychometric properties (normal distribution values, reliabilities and factor structure) of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire (ZKA-PQ) and the Temperament and Character Inventory revised (TCI-R). The total sample consisted of 482 subjects (53.1% men and 46.9% women) from diverse age. Results showed somewhat better psychometric properties, like reliability and facet-factor structure, for the ZKA-PQ than the TCI-R. The expected five-factor facet structure of the ZKA-PQ was clear found. However, the seven-factor structure of TCI-R was not clear and it did not show a clear distinction between Temperament and Character factors. When ZKA-PQ and TCI-R variables are analyzed together, the ZKA-PQ factors are related to the Character as well as the Temperament factors. In some cases they represent the opposite poles of ZKA-PQ factors; for example, Neuroticism versus Self-Directiveness and Aggression versus Cooperativeness. Some are directly and highly related to ZKA-PQ factors; for example, Sensation Seeking and Novelty Seeking, Extraversion and Reward Dependence, Neuroticism and Harm Avoidance, and Activity and Persistence.     

Life change and the sensation seeking motive

College undergraduates were administered the Life Experiences Survey, the Discomfort scale of the Psychological Screening Inventory, and the most recent version of the Sensation Seeking Scale. The findings did not replicate Smith et al.'s results concerning the role that sensation seeking plays in the relationship between negative life change and psychological distress. However, the data suggest that the sensation seeking motive is a causal variable that is predictive of recent life events that college students have experienced, and that future life-stress research should examine the occurence of controllable life events as a function of subjects' personality traits.     

Aggression, alcohol dependency, and self-consciousness among high school students of divorced and nondivorced parents.

134 high school students from a small high school in north central Kansas completed the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale, Fenigstein, et al.'s Self-consciousness Scale, and Zaks' Aggression Scale. Analyses of variance showed significant differences between boys and girls but not among grades. On the aggression and alcohol measures boys scored higher than girls, but lower on public self-consciousness. Youth of divorced parents scored significantly higher than those of nondivorced parents on aggression, private self-consciousness, and general self-consciousness. Aggression scores were significantly and positively correlated with those on the alcohol and private self-consciousness scales. When students' alcoholism scores indicate problems with alcohol, their scores on aggression indicate greater aggression and their private self-consciousness scores indicate sensitivity toward events in their environment, then having concerns about inner self can inhibit the action required for change. MacAndrew scores correlated significantly and negatively with scores on social anxiety about self-consciousness. When MacAndrew scores indicated problems with alcohol, the students' scores on social anxiety about self-consciousness suggested confidence in social settings, being at ease interacting with people. The present study involved students from a single rural district so increased understanding will require more extensive research if strategies for prevention and intervention are to be developed and utilized.     

Influence of sensation seeking on general deviance and specific problem behaviors from adolescence to young adulthood

Indicators of a Sensation Seeking latent construct were assessed during adolescence and used to predict changes in repeatedly gathered measures of a latent construct of General Deviance. A community sample of 595 male and female Ss was assessed 3 times over a 5-year period from late adolescence to young adulthood. Most Ss reported use of licit drugs, about one half had tried illicit drugs, and a substantial minority had engaged in other delinquent or criminal activities. The General Deviance construct was stable over time, although specific cross-effects were found. Sensation Seeking was moderately correlated with General Deviance at all 3 levels but did not predict directly the General Deviance construct over time; the effects of Sensation Seeking on later deviant behavior and attitudes were specific rather than general.     

Individual differences in sensation seeking and attentional ability

Evidence is provided that high scores on the Zuckerman Sensation Seeking Scale are associated in the normal population with good focused-attention performance and poor distributed-attention performance. Focused-attention performance is assessed as the ability to select relevant information while ignoring irrelevant information, and distributed-attention performance is assessed as the ability to carry out concurrently two independent complex tasks. It is hypothesized that the observed disposition of attentional performance reflects differential patterns of arousal in individuals with high and low Sensation Seeking scores.     

Diminished sense of self-existence and self-reported aggression among Japanese students

This study examined the relationship between a diminished sense of self-existence and self-reported aggression among Japanese undergraduate students. Based on the previous scales, 81 items were developed to measure the diminished sense of self-existence and were assumed to represent three dimensions: self, others, and time. 286 undergraduate students rated themselves on the Diminished Sense of Self-existence Scale and the 1992 Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire. Analysis indicated that men and women had low scores on Verbal Aggression and high scores on Hostility with the diminished sense of self-existence. The diminished sense of self-existence was not generally related to Anger or Physical Aggression in men, whereas in women, Anger and Physical Aggression were found particularly when the sense of self-existence in relations with others was diminished.