Psycho/ogicai Reports, 1975, 37, 1215-12 18.

@ Psychological Reports 1975

16 PF CORRELATES OF SENSATION-SEEKING: A N EXPANSION A N D VALIDATION KEITH W. JACOBS1 University of Southern Mississippi Summary.-Correlations between the Form C of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire ( 1 6 P F ) and Form IV of Zuckerman's Sensation-seeking Scale are presented for 200 undergraduate college students. Previous findings tended to be supported and the analysis was expanded to include four seconds t r a w 16 P F traits and six 1 6 PF criterion scores. General sensation-seeking was negatively related to psychoticism and neuroticism and positively related to extraversion, contertia, and independence. The psychoticism and neuroticism factors are also negatively relared to the factors of sensation-seeking, thrill seeking, and disinhibition, as well as ocher significant relationships between these factor scales.

Several studies in recent years have reported scale correlations between the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16 PF) and Zuckerman's Sensation-seeking Scale. Zuckerman's scale was originally develop4 as a brief scale to measure "optimal level of stimulation" (Zuckerman, et al., 1964) and later was expanded into a factor-analytically derived instrument containing four scales in addition to the original scale to measure general sensation-seeking (GEN): thrill and adventure seeking ( T A ) , experience seeking (ES), disinhibition (DIS), and a scale for boredom susceptibility (BS) which is applicable only for males (Zuckerman, 1971). The pattern of relationships between Form A of the 16 PF and the earlier form of the sensation-seeking scale was reported by Gorman ( 1970) based on 64 subjects. H e found that general sensation-seeking was related positively to 16 PF/E (dominance), 16 PF/F (surgency ) , 16 PF/H (adventurousness), 16 PF/L (suspicion), 16 PF/M (Bohemian unconcernedness), and 16 PF/Ql (radicalism); and negatively to 16 PF/G (superego strength), 16 P F / N (shrewdness), and 16 PF/Q3 (self-sentiment control). H e concluded from these findings that general sensation-seeking is related to an impulsive cognitive style which may underlie psychopathic conditions but which is not itself necessarily psychopathic. Zuckerman, et al. (1972) reported similar correlations based on 122 college students who were administered Form A of the 16 PF and the revised form of the sensation-seeking scale. Their findings were that: "Both males and females show a similar pattern of correlations between the General Sensationseeking scale and the 16 PF scales: positive correlations with Dominance, 'Requesrs for reprints may be addressed to K. W. Jacobs, Department of Psychology, Loyo!a University, New Orleans, La 70118.

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K. W. JACOBS

Surgency, Adventurousness, Bohemian, and Radicalism scales, and negative correlations with the Super-ego scales. The patterns of correlations between the 16 PF and the factor scales of the SSS are similar for males and females, although DIS in females correlates with various scales which comprise the second-order factor 'anxiety' or 'neuroticism' in the 16 PF . . ." (Zuckerman, et al., 1972, p. 313). Limirarions of these studies have been that the relationships between the 16 PF and the sensation-seeking scale have not included actual correlations with the second-order rraits and criterion scores, have utilized earlier forms of the scales, and frequently have been based on small sample sites. The present study is an attempt to replicare previous findings using a larger sample size, and expand the results to the 16 PF derived scales and the latter form of the sensation-seeking scale. Participants were 200 undergraduate college students (84 male, 116 female), with a mean age of 21.64 yr. Form C of the 16 PF (Cattell, et d., 1970) and Form IV of the sensation-seeking scale (Zuckerman, 1971) were administered in small group settings. Analysis was carried out using program REGRAN (Veldman, 1967) to generate correlation matrices separately by sex and for both sexes combined. Analyses included the first four of the 16 PF second-order traits and the six criterion scores presented in the manual, as well as the 16 primary traits. Table 1 presents the correlations between the 16 PF variables and the four sensation-seeking variables, based on the combined male and female analysis since similar patterns were observed for both males and females. In general, the present findings do approximate the previoi~srelationships between 16 PF and sensation-seeking, The present findings are extremely close to the relationships reported between the 16 PF and the general scale of Zuckerman's scale (Gorman, 1970). Patterns similar to chose reported by Zuckerman, et al. (1972) were also found in this srudy, even though chere were some areas of non-support in the factor scales for the sensation-seeking scale. The present relationships between factor scales of sensation-seeking and the derived and criterion scores for the 16 PF may be somewhat predictable from the relationships between the primary source rraits and the Zuckerman scale factors but have apparently not been previously reported. The nonpathological nature of sensation-seeking is supported by the significant relationships between these factor scales and the Psychoticism (PS) and Neuroticism ( N E ) criterion scores on the 16 PF. All four of the sensation-seeking faccor scales are significantly related to the 16 PF second-order trait of subduedness vs independence ( I N ) , which is a rype of broadly based independence similar to field independence. The subscales are each positively related to the 16 PF second-stratum traits of Exvia ( E X ) and Contertia ( C O ) , or extraversion and

1 6 PF CORRELATES OF SENSATION-SEEKING

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TABLE 1 CORRELATIONS BETWEEN16 PF AND SENSATION-SEEKING SCALES

16 PF Variables GEN

Sensation Seeking3 TA ES

DIS

Schizothymia Intelligence Ego Strength Dominance Surgency Superego Strength Venturesome Tender-minded Suspicious Imaginative Shrewdness Guilt proneness Radicalism Self-sufficiency Controlled Ergic Tension Extraversion Anxiety Conterria Independence Psychoticism Neuroticism Leadership Creativity Scholastic Apritude ~ p.,. Note.-Pearson rs of .14 and .18 are required for significance at p , and 'Gen = general sensation-seeking, TA = thrill- and adventure-seeking, ES = experienceseeking, DIS = disinhibition.

cortical alertness which are the popular labels for these dimensions; relationships which are consistent with the theoretical basis of sensation-seeking. The relationships between the additional 16 PF criterion scores for Scholastic Aptitude (SA), Leadership (LE) and Creativity (CR) and the sensationseeking factors suggest a more diffuse pattern in which Scholastic Aptirude is related negatively to Disinhibition, Leadership is related positively to Thrillseeking, and Creativity is related positively to Experience-seeking. In popular terms, scholastic aptitude is inconsistent with disinhibired sexual behavior, leadership goes along with the form of sensation-seeking which is involved in out-door sports and danger, and creativity is related to the form of sensationseeking which emphasizes experiencing things for their own sake, i.e., the "hippie" dimension. Again, these relationships are consistent with the theoretical basis of sensation-seeking.

K. W. JACOBS

A n interesting finding is that only two of the 16 PF derived scales are related to the sensation-seeking dimension of Experience Seeking (ES). In view of the number of 16 PF primary traits related to Experience Seeking ( 6 out of 16), this is not entirely clear. T h e absence of relationships between the 16 PF measure of crystalized intelligence (16 PF/B) and the sensationseeking scales may suggest an independence of these measures. REFERENCES CA'ITELL,R. B., EBER,H. W., & TATSUOKA,M. M. Handbook for che Sixreen Personality Factor Questionnaire ( 1 6 PF) . Champaign, 111.: Institute for Personality & Ability Testing, 1970.

GORMAN,B. S. 16 PF correlates of sensation seeking. Psychological Reports, 1970, 26, 741-742.

VELDMAN, D. J. Fortran programming for the behavioral sciences. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1967.

ZUCKERMAN, M. Dimensions of sensation-seeking. Journal o f Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1971, 36, 45-52.

ZUCKERMAN, M., BONE, R. N., NEARY, R., MANGELSDORFF, D., & BRUSTMAN,B. What

is the sensation seeker? Personality and experience correlates of the sensation seeking scales. Journal o f Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1972, 39, 308-321. ZUCKERMAN, M., KOLIN,E. A., PRICE,L., & 2.000, I. Development of a sensation-seeking scale. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1964, 28, 477-482. Accepted Ocrober 4, 1975.

16 PF correlates of sensation-seeking: an expansion and validation.

Psycho/ogicai Reports, 1975, 37, 1215-12 18. @ Psychological Reports 1975 16 PF CORRELATES OF SENSATION-SEEKING: A N EXPANSION A N D VALIDATION KEIT...
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