Agreeableness is how empathetic and interested in other
people you are. It describes how trusting you might be. People who
score high on agreeableness are serious, trusting, helpful, and for-
giving. They might also be seen as gullible, perhaps agreeing to cash
checks for stranded royalty who reach out to them via email. Those
low on agreeableness can be seen as cynical and suspicious and are
always looking for ways they may get tricked.
Neuroticism describes how much you worry about things
or get tied up in your own thoughts and feelings. It describes
how emotional a person might be. People who score high on
neuroticism are seen as worrying, nervous, and excitable. They
might call you and yell, “The WORST thing just happened to me
today,” even when what actually happened was rather minor.
Those with low scores on neuroticism can be seen as cold
Vulcan-like stoics.
Extroversion updated from Jung, describes your energy
focus. Those who score high in extroversion are seen as social,
active, and talkative. Those who score low on extroversion (aka
introverts) are often reserved and quiet.
The Big Five is one of the most researched conceptualiza-
tions of trait personality out there. But a love of thrill isn’t one of
the Big Five traits and it’s not reflected reliably by a combination
of them. While some thrill-seekers have some of the impulsivity of
extroverts, many others don’t. Some are drawn to new things and
might score high on openness to experience, but others repeat the
same thrill-seeking experiences because they find something new
in the activity every time.
This may very well mean that sensation-seeking is not cap-
tured by the traits in the Big Five. Perhaps explaining the thrill-
seeking personality is outside the realm of the grand personality
theories of Freud, Jung, Eysenck, or the Big Five. This is where
a mini theory might come into play. Rather than a broad theory
that explains the whole of personality, mini theories explain one
thing quite well, a special tool for a special job. Perhaps a mini
theory could explain thrill-seeking in an elegant way where the
grand theories have fallen short. Enter Marvin Zuckerman.
Zuckerman was one of the first people to see thrill-seeking as
a separate and important personality trait and do real scientific
research on it. However, he found his way into this area in a most
unexpected way – by studying how people reacted to no stimulus
whatsoever.11 / What is Sensation-SeekingDownloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Access paid by the UCSF Library, on 11 Nov 2019 at 14:20:54, subject to the Cambridge