The Art of Manliness30 Okt 2024

Are You a Thrill Seeker or a Chill Seeker?

This episode starts off a little differently than others — with a short quiz, something called the Brief Sensation-Seeking Scale, which will tell you whether you're what psychologists call a high sensation-seeker or a low sensation-seeker. Read the following eight statements, and then pick a number from 1 to 5 that corresponds to your level of agreement, where 1 is "Not at all like me," 2 is "Not like me," 3 is "Unsure or both like and not like me," 4 is "Like me," and 5 is "Very much like me."

I would like to explore strange places.

I would like to take off on a trip with no pre-planned routes or timetables.

I get restless when I spend too much time alone.

I prefer friends who are excitingly unpredictable.

I like wild parties.

I would love to have new and exciting experiences, even if they are illegal.

I would like to try bungee jumping.

I would like to do frightening things.

Now add up all the numbers together. If you scored between 8 and 16, you are a low sensation-seeker. If you scored between 16 and 28, you're about average for sensation-seeking. If you scored over 28, you're a high sensation-seeker.

Today on the show, I unpack what these categories of personality mean with Dr. Kenneth Carter, a clinical psychologist, a professor, and the author of Buzz!: Inside the Minds of Thrill-Seekers, Daredevils, and Adrenaline Junkies. Ken explains how sensation-seeking exists on a spectrum between chill seekers, who like safety and calm routine, and thrill seekers, who enjoy chaos, risk, and novelty. He shares how there are actually four components to high sensation-seeking, and which two tend to get people in trouble. And we talk about whether being high or low sensation-seeking is a matter of nature or nurture, how high sensation-seekers fare in romantic relationships and what they should consider in choosing a career, and what the world's chill seekers can learn from its thrill seekers.

Resources Related to the Podcast

40-Question Sensation-Seeking Scale Test

Connect with Ken Carter

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(1181)

The 3-Step System for Simplifying Your Work and Life

When people are faced with problems and complexity, our instinct is to add instead of subtract. As a result, we have a tendency to make our work and our lives more and more complex, and less and less ...

15 Sep 46min

If I Don’t Return: A General's Wartime Journal for His Sons

When Mark Hertling learned he was deploying for Operation Desert Storm, he decided to start a journal.Back then, Mark was an Army major and cavalry officer with two young sons. His unit would be out i...

8 Sep 48min

To Change Yourself, Change Your Situation

Professor of psychology Angela Duckworth is famous for her work on grit — the combination of passion and perseverance that leads to high achievement. But she’s come to an increasing appreciation for t...

1 Sep 55min

The Lost Virtue of Thumos (And Why Men Need It)

The ancient Greeks believed the human soul had three parts: reason, appetite, and something called thumos. Thumos is difficult to translate into English. It encompasses anger, noble spiritedness, prid...

25 Aug 53min

The Secrets of Supercommunicators

Note: This is a rebroadcast. Have you ever known one of those people who seemed to be able to connect with anyone? The kind of person who had the ability to make others feel understood and smoothly na...

18 Aug 45min

The Joy of Touching Grass (and Knobs, Buttons, and Boarding Passes)

Remember the old hotel ice machines? The kind where you'd slide your bucket under the chute and hear the avalanche of cubes crashing into it? There was something so fun and strangely gratifying about ...

11 Aug 51min

Big P vs. Little P Purpose: Why You Don't Need to Find Your One True Calling

People are told their whole lives how important it is to find their purpose. But many find the search frustrating. They feel there's one true calling or one grand goal they're supposed to be pursuing,...

4 Aug 50min

Restless, Rooted: What the Odyssey Reveals About Americans' Divided Souls

With the release of Christopher Nolan's adaptation of the Odyssey, it seems like everyone's been talking about a 3,000-year-old epic again. But my guest thinks this ancient tale offers a framework for...

28 Jul 52min