Sensation seeking and negative affectivity as predictors of risky behaviors: A distinction between occasional versus frequent risk-taking

We tested two competing predictions of whether changes in parent–child relationship quality buffer or exacerbate the association between sensation-seeking and risk-taking behaviors as individuals gain more independence during the high school–college transition. In the current longitudinal study, 287 participants completed self-report measures of sensation seeking, risk-taking, and parent–child relationship quality with their parents prior to starting college and again during their first semester. Overall, students displayed increases in risky behaviors, which were predicted by sensation seeking. Changes in relationship quality moderated the association between sensation seeking and risk-taking, such that sensation seeking predicted higher risk-taking behaviors during the first semester of college, but only for those who reported increases in relationship quality across the college transition. These results suggest that increased relationship quality may have an inadvertent spillover effect by interacting with sensation seeking to increase risky behaviors.

Download Full-text

Beyond Sensation Seeking: Affect Regulation as a Framework for Predicting Risk-Taking Behaviors in High-Risk Sport

Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology ◽

10.1123/jsep.32.5.731 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 32 (5) ◽

pp. 731-738 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Carole Castanier ◽

Christine Le Scanff ◽

Tim Woodman

Keyword(s):

Regression Analysis ◽

High Risk ◽

Risk Taking ◽

Affect Regulation ◽

Sensation Seeking ◽

Negative Affectivity ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Hierarchical Regression ◽

Self Awareness ◽

Risk Taking Behaviors

Sensation seeking has been widely studied when investigating individual differences in the propensity for taking risks. However, risk taking can serve many different goals beyond the simple management of physiological arousal. The present study is an investigation of affect self-regulation as a predictor of risk-taking behaviors in high-risk sport. Risk-taking behaviors, negative affectivity, escape self-awareness strategy, and sensation seeking data were obtained from 265 high-risk sportsmen. Moderated hierarchical regression analysis revealed significant main and interaction effects of negative affectivity and escape self-awareness strategy in predicting risk-taking behaviors: high-risk sportsmen’s negative affectivity leads them to adopt risk-taking behaviors only if they also use escape self-awareness strategy. Furthermore, the affective model remained significant when controlling for sensation seeking. The present study contributes to an in-depth understanding of risk taking in high-risk sport.

Download Full-text

The assessment of physical risk taking: Preliminary construct validation of a new behavioral measure

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0258826 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (10) ◽

pp. e0258826

Author(s):

Edward A. Smith ◽

Stephen D. Benning

Keyword(s):

Risk Taking ◽

Real World ◽

Sensation Seeking ◽

Risky Behaviors ◽

Self Report ◽

Behavioral Measure ◽

Behavioral Risk ◽

Exploratory Investigation ◽

Outcome Scores ◽

Physical Risk

Risk taking is a complex heterogeneous construct that has proven difficult to assess, especially when using behavioral tasks. We present an exploratory investigation of new measure–the Assessment of Physical Risk Taking (APRT). APRT produces a variety of different outcome scores and is designed as a comprehensive assessment of the probability of success and failure, and magnitude of reward and punishment of different types of simulated physically risky behaviors. Effects observed on the simulated behaviors are hypothesized to reflect similar effects on real world physical risks. Participants (N = 224) completed APRT in a laboratory setting, half of whom had a 1.5 s delay interposed between button presses. Exploratory analyses utilizing generalized estimating equations examined the main effects and two-way interactions among five within-subject factors, as well as two-way interactions between the within-subject factors and Delay across four APRT outcome scores. Results indicated that Injury Magnitude and Injury Probability exerted stronger effects than any of the other independent variables. Participants also completed several self-report measures of risk taking and associated constructs (e.g., sensation seeking), which were correlated with APRT scores to assess the preliminary convergent and divergent validity of the new measure. After correcting for multiple comparisons, APRT scores correlated with self-reported risk taking in thrilling, physically dangerous activities specifically, but only for those who did not have a delay between APRT responses. This promising exploratory investigation highlights the need for future studies comparing APRT to other behavioral risk taking tasks, examining the robustness of the observed APRT effects, and investigating how APRT may predict real-world physical risk taking.

Download Full-text

The adventurous tourist amidst a pandemic: Effects of personality, attitudes, and affect

Journal Of Vacation Marketing ◽

10.1177/13567667211063208 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 135676672110632

Author(s):

Edwin N Torres ◽

Wei Wei ◽

Jorge Ridderstaat

Keyword(s):

Risk Taking ◽

Sensation Seeking ◽

Negative Affectivity ◽

Influential Factor ◽

Hypotheses Testing ◽

Purchasing Behavior ◽

Regression Analyses ◽

Professional Research ◽

Risk Takers ◽

Willingness To Purchase

To better understand travel and hospitality consumers’ purchasing behavior amidst a worldwide emergency commonly referenced as COVID-19, the present research set out to assess the impacts of sensation-seeking, consumer affect, and risk-taking attitude on consumers’ willingness to purchase travel-related activities. A sample of 775 adult U.S. consumers were recruited with the help of a professional research consulting company. Simple and multiple regression analyses were performed for the purpose of hypotheses testing. Results demonstrate that individuals with higher sensation-seeking levels, lower negative affectivity, and who identify themselves as risk-takers are more willing to engage in various travel and commercial hospitality activities. Furthermore, sensation-seeking proves to be the most influential factor in driving consumers’ willingness to purchase amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors conclude by proposing a typology (illustrated in two different grids) of consumers based on their levels of sensation-seeking (high vs. low), affect (positive vs. negative), and risk-taking attitude (high vs. low). Theoretically, the model helps predict which consumers are most likely to engage in travel-related activities despite of the challenges posed by global pandemics.

Download Full-text

Within-person variability in sensation-seeking during daily life: positive associations with alcohol use and self-defined risky behaviors

10.31234/osf.io/djb5c ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

David M. Lydon-Staley ◽

Emily B. Falk ◽

Danielle S Bassett

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Use ◽

Language Processing ◽

Risk Taking ◽

Sensation Seeking ◽

Daily Life ◽

Risky Behaviors ◽

School Work ◽

Wide Range ◽

Insight Into

Sensation-seeking is the seeking of varied, novel, and intense experiences and the willingness to take risks in order to engage in these experiences. Sensation-seeking is robustly associated with engagement in risky behaviors but important questions remain concerning the role of within-person variability in sensation-seeking. We use data from a 21-day daily diary protocol from 167 participants (mean age = 25.37, SD = 7.34) to test day-to-day, within-person associations between sensation-seeking and both alcohol use and self-reported risk-taking. Participants also reported the riskiest behavior they engaged in each day, allowing insight into the types of risks that participants take during the course of daily life. Multilevel model results indicate that days of higher than usual sensation-seeking are more likely to be days on which alcohol is consumed relative to days of no alcohol use, and that risk-taking is higher than usual on days of higher than usual sensation-seeking. Coupling natural language processing with network science tools, we reduce 2490 self-reports of the day’s riskiest behavior to 20 communities reflecting a wide range of risk domains, including social, school, work, and drug use risks. Creating a risk-taking diversity score based on the identified domains of participant-elicited risk behaviors, we find that trait sensation-seeking is positively associated with greater diversity in the types of risks reported. In sum, we capture day-to-day fluctuations in sensation-seeking, observe that sensation-seeking and both alcohol use and risky behaviors are associated at the within-person level, and provide insight into the types of risks taken during the course of daily life.

Download Full-text

Psychopathy and risk taking: Self-report and behavioral correlates

10.31234/osf.io/jmv68 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Stephen D Benning

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

Risk Taking ◽

Sensation Seeking ◽

Process Model ◽

Risky Behaviors ◽

Dual Process ◽

Self Report ◽

Behavioral Risk ◽

Behavioral Correlates ◽

Two Factors

Psychopathy is a distinctive personality style that is associated with a tendency to act recklessly, impulsively, and engage in sensation seeking behaviors. These associations suggest that psychopathy may be related to risk taking; however, the relationship between these variables has yet to be fully explored. To investigate this relationship, we utilized the dual-process model of psychopathy’s fearless dominance (FD) and impulsive antisociality (IA) factors and the Triarchic model’s boldness, meanness, and disinhibition domains. A sample of 508 undergraduate students completed a series of self-report questionnaires and underwent the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Analyses revealed that individuals high on all psychopathy factors displayed a tendency to view risky situations as less risky and self-reported engaging in a number of risky behaviors. The tendency of individuals high in psychopathic traits to view situations as less risky indirectly affected their likelihood to self-report engaging in risky behaviors. Notably, only FD was significantly associated with behavioral risk taking on the BART. Further correlational analyses revealed that IA, meanness, and disinhibition were all associated with greater self-reported externalizing behaviors, sensation seeking, and impulsivity. On the other hand, FD and boldness were only associated with self-reported adult antisocial behavior, alcohol use, sensation seeking, and low levels of impulsivity. Our pattern of results showed nearly identical relationships for FD and boldness, suggesting that these two factors may be capturing the same aspects of psychopathy.

Download Full-text

SENSATION SEEKING DAN RISK-TAKING BEHAVIOR PADA REMAJA AKHIR DI UNIVERSITAS SURABAYA

Sosial & Humaniora ◽

10.24123/jsh.v7i1.679 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 64

Author(s):

Dennis Purwoko ◽

Monique Elizabeth Sukamto

Keyword(s):

Risk Taking ◽

Sensation Seeking ◽

Risky Behaviors ◽

Male Students ◽

Personality Factor ◽

Financial Health ◽

Late Adolescents ◽

Health Safety ◽

Positive Correlation ◽

Risk Taking Behavior

Risk-taking behavior refers to any kind of behaviors that put adolescents in a risky condition involving ethical, financial, health/safety, social, and recreational (Blais & Weber, 2006). The involvement of adolescents in risky behaviors can be influenced by personality factor, such as sensation-seeking, that is the adolescent’s need to seek for different, new, and complex sensations and experiences and willing to accept any risks to get such sensation (Zuckerman, 2007). The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between sensation seeking and risk-taking behavior among late adolescents in Universitas Surabaya. Participants in this study were male students of Universitas Surabaya aged 18-21 years (N=100). The result showed that there was positive correlation between sensation seeking and risk-taking behavior (r= .531, sig. < .01)among late adolescents in Universitas Surabaya.

Download Full-text

Sensation Seeking and Impulsivity As Predictors of Adolescents' Risk Taking

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e705352011-001 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Meagen A. Higgins ◽

David V. Chavez

Keyword(s):

Risk Taking ◽

Sensation Seeking

Download Full-text

Positive risk-taking: Mixed-methods validation of a self-report scale and evidence for genetic links to personality and negative risk-taking

10.31234/osf.io/bq63f ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Megan Wales Patterson ◽

Lilla Pivnick ◽

Frank D Mann ◽

Andrew D Grotzinger ◽

Kathryn C Monahan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Youth Development ◽

Risk Taking ◽

Sensation Seeking ◽

Empirical Work ◽

Well Being ◽

Population Based ◽

Self Report ◽

Personality Factors ◽

Positive Behaviors ◽

Adolescent Risk

Adolescents are more likely to take risks. Typically, research on adolescent risk-taking has focused on its negative health and societal consequences. However, some risk-taking behaviors might be positive, defined here as behavior that does not violate the rights of others and that might advance socially-valuable goals. Empirical work on positive risk-taking has been limited by measurement challenges. In this study, we elicited adolescents’ free responses (n = 75) about a time they took a risk. Based on thematic coding, we identified positive behaviors described as risks and selected items to form a self-report scale. The resulting positive risk-taking scale was quantitatively validated in a population-based sample of adolescent twins (n = 1249). Second, we evaluated associations between positive risk-taking, negative risk-taking, and potential personality and peer correlates using a genetically informed design. Sensation seeking predicted negative and positive risk-taking equally strongly, whereas extraversion differentiated forms of risk-taking. Additive genetic influences on personality accounted for the total heritability in positive risk-taking. Indirect pathways from personality through positive and negative peer environments were identified. These results provide promising evidence that personality factors of sensation seeking and extraversion can manifest as engagement in positive risks. Increased understanding of positive manifestations of adolescent risk-taking may yield targets for positive youth development strategies to bolster youth well-being.

Download Full-text

Agreeableness and neuroticism predict being more concerned about COVID-19 and bothered by friends’ risky behavior

10.31234/osf.io/qkp8b ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jessica Daphne Ayers ◽

Diego Guevara Beltran ◽

Andrew Van Horn ◽

Lee Cronk ◽

Hector Hurmuz-Sklias ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Personality Traits ◽

Risk Taking ◽

Risky Behavior ◽

Risky Behaviors ◽

Reduce Risk

Given the importance of friendships during challenging times and the mixed associations reported between personality traits and disease-related behaviors, we investigated the influence of personality traits on friendships during the COVID-19 pandemic and how both influenced risky behaviors. In November 2020, we asked participants about their reactions to friends’ behavior as part of a larger study. We found that agreeableness and neuroticism predicted participants being more concerned about COVID-19 and bothered by friends’ risky behavior, and extraversion predicted enjoying helping friends during the pandemic. Our results suggest that personality influences how individuals cope with their friends’ risky behaviors. This work could be relevant for developing interventions to reduce risk taking during the pandemic, such as using friendships to reinforce adherence to public health guidelines.

Download Full-text