The sensation seeking scale: Its use in a study of the characteristics of people choosing ‘Adventure holidays’

The Sensation Seeking Scale Form V (Zuckerman, Eysenck & Eysenck, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46, 139–149, 1978) was used in a small-scale study of 47 tourists, both male and female, who had recently undertaken an overland adventure holiday. Their responses on the Scale were compared with those of a mixed sex control group (N = 46) randomly selected from people of the same age group and socio-economic status. Highly significant differences were found between the adventure travellers and controls in terms of total score and scores on the Thrill and Adventure Seeking scales (P< 0.00005 in each case). As in previous studies the SSS is shown to have adequate internal reliability, but it appears to require updating in several respects including its use of language, choice of ‘sensation seeking’ activities and provision of normative data. Despite such reservations, however, the present findings suggest that the test has potential as a psychometric tool in tourism research.