Psychology2016

362 CHAPTER 9

dragon. The first set was considered a low-intensity stimulus, whereas the second set was

labeled a high-intensity stimulus. The infants who reached out for the toys more quickly and

reached for the high-intensity toys in particular were high sensation seekers.

Is the tendency to be a sensation seeker something people have when they are

born? Although it is tempting to think of 6-month-old children as having little in the way

of experiences that could shape their personalities, the fact is that the first 6 months of

life are full of experiences that might affect children’s choices in the future. For example,

a very young infant might, while being carried, stick a hand into some place that ends up

causing pain. This experience might affect that infant’s willingness in the future to put

his or her hand in something else through the simple learning process of operant con-

ditioning. to Learning Objective 5.5. In a longitudinal study taking place over

about 4 years, researchers found that adolescents who played video games in which high

risk taking is positively presented became more likely to engage in risky behavior and

had increased scores on levels of sensation seeking (Hull et al., 2012).

The presence of other people may matter as well. Adolescents tend to make more

risky decisions when in a group of peers than when alone, a phenomenon that is part of

peer pressure (Albert et al., 2013; Chein et al., 2011; Smith et al., 2014; Willoughby et al.,

2013). In one recent study (Silva et al., 2016), late-adolescent males (18 to 22 years of age)

were given a battery of tests on decision making under three conditions: alone, in a group

of four males of the same age, and in a group with three age-mates and one older male

(25 to 30 years of age). When tested alone or in the group with the older male, the par-

ticipants exhibited about the same level of risky behavior, but when tested in the group

with same-age peers, they exhibited significantly greater risk taking. It would seem that

the presence of just the one older male was enough to cancel out the risk-taking increase

usually found in peer pressure situations.

INCENTIVE APPROACHES

Last Thanksgiving, I had eaten about all I could. Then my aunt

brought out a piece of her wonderful pumpkin pie and I couldn’t

resist—I ate it, even though I was not at all hungry. What makes us

do things even when we don’t have the drive or need to do them?

It’s true that sometimes there is no physical need present, yet people still eat, drink,

or react as if they did have a need. Even though that piece of pie was not necessary to

reduce a hunger drive, it was very rewarding, wasn’t it? And on past occasions, that pie

was also delicious and rewarding, so there is anticipation of that reward now. The pie,

in all its glorious promise of flavor and sweetness, becomes, in itself, an incentive to eat.

Incentives are things that attract or lure people into action.

In incentive approaches, behavior is explained in terms of the external stimu-

lus and its rewarding properties. These rewarding properties exist independently of

any need or level of arousal and can cause people to act only upon the incentive. Thus,

incentives
things that attract or lure people into
action.

incentive approaches
theories of motivation in which behav-
ior is explained as a response to the
external stimulus and its rewarding
properties.

Table 9. 1 Sample Items From the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire

Scale Item Sensation Seeking

I sometimes do “crazy” things just for fun. High

I prefer friends who are excitingly unpredictable. High

I am an impulsive person. High

Before I begin a complicated job, I make careful plans. Low

I usually think about what I am going to do before doing it. Low

SOURCE: Adapted from Zuckerman, M. (2002).