Friends, porn, and punk: sensation seeking in personal relationships, Internet activities, and music preference among college students

Adolescence, Summer, 2004 by Robert S. Weisskirch, Laurel C. Murphy

Music

We analyzed scores on music preference (liking scale: 1 = do not like, 2 = somewhat dislike, 3 = like, and 4 = like a lot). The most liked music styles were reggae (M = 3.04), oldies (M = 3.00), and alternative (M = 2.94); see Table 3. Participants least liked country, electronic/dance, and ska music.

Liking certain music styles and level of sensation seeking were positively correlated (see Table 3). There were positive relationships between total sensation seeking and liking heavy metal, punk, reggae, and ska music. There were also significant positive relationships between the Novelty subscale and liking electronic/dance, heavy metal, Latin, reggae, ska, and world music. The Intensity subscale was positively correlated with liking heavy metal and punk, and negatively correlated with liking Latin, oldies, R & B, and pop/rock.

Participants listened most often to punk (16%), alternative (16%), pop/rock (9%), and hip hop (9%). Those who spent more time listening to punk, compared with other music styles, had significantly higher total sensation seeking scores, F(13, 104) = 2.74, p = .003, and significantly higher Intensity subscale scores, F(13, 114) = 3.16, p = .001.

DISCUSSION

Because high sensation seekers have a strong need for optimal arousal and stimulation, they were expected to have a greater number of personal relationships. In fact, higher sensation seeking was related to having a greater number of close and casual friendships. However, the strength of the association was moderate. It could be that friends provide the needed stimuli for some sensation seekers, while others look for arousing stimuli elsewhere. It would be worthwhile to further investigate prospectively whether high sensation seekers do tend to interact with more people as well as perceive that having many friends provides stimulation in their lives.

Kraut, Patterson, Lundmark, Kiesler, Mukopadhyay, and Scherlis (1998) noted that individuals can use the Internet in socially oriented and interactive ways or in isolative ways. Their research indicated that greater Internet use was associated with increases in depression and reductions in social interaction. However, they pointed out that the rationale behind accessing the Internet could have been a factor in the results. In the present study, higher sensation seeking was associated with getting sex-oriented material from the Internet, clearly a high-arousal activity, in the previous 24 hours. In addition, the Intensity dimension of sensation seeking was related to getting sex-oriented material, downloading or playing music, playing games, and chatting/ instant messaging with friends. In a broader time frame (over the past week), higher sensation seeking was associated with less chatting/ instant messaging with known and virtual friends, which may indicate the high sensation seeker's need to have face-to-face interactions rather than virtual ones. Interestingly, Lavin, Marvin, McLarney, Nola, and Scott (1999) found that college students who spent more time on-line had lower levels of sensation seeking. These researchers indicated that there might be a subset of sensation seekers who desire nonphysical sensations as opposed to physical thrills, which are typically assessed in measures of sensation seeking. The results of the current study indicate that there may be some sensation seekers who do, in fact, look for stimulation via nonphysical means such as the Internet. Further investigation into how Internet use satisfies sensation seekers' needs is merited, particularly with its increased interactivity, faster communication, and more real-time capabilities.