Einstein was a Big T+
High-Sensation seekers, those characterized as creative, disinhibited, and witty boundary-pushers are everywhere. Your mother, father, best friend, or even your grandmother could be a high sensation-seeker and you wouldn’t even know it. Perhaps you’d gather that they were a bit more exciting than the average person, but never considered any of them to be high sensation-seekers. In Christopher Munsey’s APA (American Psychological Association) article titled “Frisky, but more risky”, Munsey discusses Temple University psychologist Dr. Frank Farley’s studies in high sensation-seekers. Dr. Farley points out that high sensation-seekers are real, prevalent, and could even be considered their own personality type.
Dr. Farley describes the high sensation-seeking personality trait as “the Big T personality” with the “T” standing for “thrill seeking”. The Big T personality can be either a positive Big T personality or a negative Big T personality. Big T negative personalities may be involved in crimes or violence simply for thrill, which starkly contrast Big T positive personalities, which are those who find thrills in physical or mental activities, examples being Mt. Everest mountain climber and Albert Einstein respectively. The mountain climber finds thrill in the reaching the top of mountain despite the sheer possibility of plummeting to his demise, and Albert Einstein found his research and discoveries to be thrilling
What's this all about?
I'm sure if you've visited this page you may wonder what's this all about? Why the sudden interest in high sensation seeking? What exactly IS high sensation seeking. At last...the reveal:
Several years ago I started thinking about how some people tend to complicate their lives more than seemed necessary. People who were always running late, never and had offices that looked kinda like a ticker tape parade. They almost invited chaos into their lives. Although only slightly related, looking through journal articles I discovered a description of a particular personality type. I high sensation seeking personality type. These individuals are adrenaline lovers and buzz junkies. But it's more than you might think. There are 4 pieces to the buzz junkie.
1 They love thrill and new adventures.
2 They get board easily (with people and experiences).
3 They seek new mental and physical experiences.
4 They are impulsive and some times uninhibited.
Before you get too frightened, there are 2 things to remember. First, we all seek the buzz. It isn't inherently bad. It's just a few of the buzz junkies are so drawn to exciting experiences that they get themselves into trouble with their buzz seeking habits.
This leads me to today. I'm writing a book about buzz junkies and creating a page for research (this one) and a companion page (soon) to gather and share stories about buzz junkies.
Thanks for joining me on this journey and please share this with your friends who might get a buzz from this research.
Welcome Mukund Martin as a blogger!
Hey there!
My name is Mukund Martin, and I am a 20-year-old Art History major at Oxford College of Emory University. I am Dr. Carter’s research scholar this year and will be a guest blogger concerning HSS personalities this spring.
Do you have a high sensation seeking personality? Take this test
Here's an online test you can take to find out if you have a #highsensationseeking personality.
It will give you your score on all 4 aspects of #highsensationseeking
Underwater cave diving
One of the components of #highsensationseeking is thrill and adventure seeking. This component focuses on risks and unusual sensations. Nothing says adventure like diving into small dark spaces! Check out this post on sploid and the accompanying video. Would you dive so dark and deep?
