Mention and describe in a sentence the components of sensation seeking. Differentiate between good and bad sensation seeking

What will be an ideal response?

ANS: Using the method of factor analysis, Zuckerman identified four components of sensation seeking:

• Thrill and adventure seeking: It is the desire to engage in physical activities involving speed, danger, novelty, and defiance of gravity such as parachuting, scuba diving, or bungee jumping.


• Experience seeking: It is the search for novel experiences through travel, music, art, or a nonconformist lifestyle with similarly inclined people.


• Disinhibition: It is the need to seek release in uninhibited social activities such as risky sex, impulsiveness, aggressiveness, and antisocial behaviors.


• Boredom susceptibility: It is an aversion to repetitive experiences, routine work, and predictable people, and a reaction of restless discontent when exposed to such situations.

Zuckerman later noted a distinction between so-called good and bad sensation seeking:

• The good type, or non-impulsive socialized sensation seeking, involves the thrill- and adventure-seeking component.


• The bad type, impulsive unsocialized sensation seeking, consists of high scores on the disinhibition, experience seeking, and boredom susceptibility components, as well as high scores on Eysenck's psychoticism scale.