the satisfaction comes from pushing herself in order to conquer
challenges. What drives her to bike and travel is challenging her-
self. Her challenges are really a thirst for new experiences and not
a quest for danger.
“I did go skydiving once, I kind of enjoyed it, but it made me
realize that I mostly seek thrills and a sense of satisfaction from the
types of things I do like – adventures and activities. For me, my
experience could be going for a walk in the morning and seeking
the sunrise or something. I always want to challenge myself. I love
traveling, I love to meet new people, I love new experiences. The
challenge is the quest to experience the unknown and to see where
it takes me.”
Another aspect of experience-seeking involves being
around people who stimulate these experiences because they are
unpredictable and different. Experience-seekers are attracted to an
anti-establishment personality type that rejects the norm. We’ll
discuss more about this inChapter 5.Disinhibition
Disinhibition involves our ability to be spontaneous. It includes
searching for opportunities to lose inhibitions. People with
strong disinhibition tendenciesact regardless of potential con-
sequences, while people with low disinhibition tendencies con-
trol their behavior more carefully and think through more of
the consequences. They look before they leap. People high in
disinhibition? They just leap. I know it sounds a little back-
wards, but the higher your disinhibition score, the more spon-
taneous you are likely to be. It might not be surprising that
these people are more injury prone and more likely to partici-
pate in activities such as the World Naked Bike Ride or the
Burning Man Festival.
Remember Sophie, the lover of challenges? Her scores for
disinhibition are relatively high, and it shows. One of her favorite
things to do is “leave home with my bike, passport, and credit card,
and go where the wind takes me.” That’s a great plan for someone
who scores high on disinhibition (meaning no plan). Her scores for
disinhibition show in other ways too.
In a blog post Sophie describes how she ran 26.2 miles,
baring her story and exposing her inner demons “in hot pants,19 / 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