Participants were administered Zuckerman’s Sensation Seeking Scale Form V (SSS-V; Zuckerman, 1978; Zuckerman, 1994). The SSS-V yields an overall Sensation Seeking score from four 10-item subscale scores. The subscales are Boredom Susceptibility (e.g. “When you can predict almost everything a person will do and say, he or she must be a bore.”), Disinhibition (e.g. “I like wild ‘uninhibited’ parties.”), Experience Seeking (e.g. “I often find beauty in the ‘clashing’ colors and irregular form of modern painting.”), and Thrill/Adventure Seeking (e.g. “I would like to try parachute jumping.”). The total sensation seeking score has good reliability in both American males (Cronbach’s α = 0.84) and females (α = 0.85; Zuckerman, 1979). Our analysis of the total sensation seeking score, rather than its subscales, provides generally greater measurement reliability, as well as a reduced number of statistical tests.
