In extreme cases, Internet gaming can cause problems more
severe than a few missed days of class and a stinky room. Some
people have lost jobs due to missed work, had children removed
from the home because of neglect, and even died due to renal
failure.^31
And guess what? Sensation-seekers are more likely to get
addicted to Internet gaming. Jie Wang and his colleagues examined
37 studies of Internet addiction and found a relationship between
Internet addiction and sensation-seeking.^32 Among the four com-
ponents of sensation-seeking, disinhibition was the subscale that
was most closely linked to Internet addiction.Aggression
Just as sensation-seekers can jump right into their pleasure-seeking
pursuits, they can also be impulsive in their expressions of aggres-
sion. When I was in fifth grade, I was the target of a mysterious
expression of aggression. A kid in my class passed me a note that
said I should meet him after school so he could beat me up. What’s
even more perplexing to my adult mind was that I chose to meet
him after school. I can only imagine that my fifth grader logic
determined that if I didn’t show up, things would be worse.
I arrived to the melee with a plan. I asked if it was okay to put
down my steel sided Six Million Dollar Man lunch box. But instead,
as I bent down, with all the force I could muster, I slammed the
corner of the lunchbox into his ribs. He doubled over, and I ran as
fast as I could for home. Dirty fighting? Maybe. But at the time it
seemed to be my best option to avoid a bloody nose.
I never did find out what set that kid off that day, but
psychologists know in general what seems to spark aggression
and other disruptive behaviors, not only in fifth graders but also
in adults. Early theories of anger regarded this emotion as
a reaction to a goal blocked or unattained. Known as the frustration-
aggression hypothesis, this theory suggests that frustration occurs
when a goal is blocked, leading to anger and aggression, which are
words or physical acts that a person does to cause harm.^33 While
a blocked goal can elicit aggression, it can also produce embarrass-
ment, guilt, and nervousness.
Your peer group can influence how you express your frus-
tration at blocked goals. If your parents ever worried that you might
“run with the wrong crowd” as a kid, it turns out they may have151 / The Dark Side of High Sensation-SeekingDownloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Access paid by the UCSF Library, on 11 Nov 2019 at 14:20:10, subject to the Cambridge