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Updated: Oct 26, 2025

Operant Sensation Seeking in the Mouse
Published on: November 10, 2010
The Association Between Sensation Seeking and Well-Being Among College-Attending Emerging Adults
Russell D Ravert1, Seth J Schwartz1, Byron L Zamboanga1
1Russell D. Ravert is Associate Professor of Human Development & Family Studies at the University of Missouri. Seth J. Schwartz is Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Miami. Byron L. Zamboanga is Associate Professor of Psychology at Smith College. M. Brent Donnellan is Associate Professor of Psychology at Michigan State University. Su Yeong Kim is Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. Robert S. Weisskirch is Professor of Human Development at California State University-Monterey Bay. Lindsay S. Ham is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Arkansas. Melina M. Bersamin is Assistant Professor of Child Development at California State University, Sacramento.
Abstract:
Sensation seeking is a known risk factor for unsafe and reckless behavior among college students, but its association with well-being is unknown. Given that exploration plays an important psychosocial role during the transition to adulthood, we examined the possibility that sensation seeking is also associated with psychological well-being. In a large multisite US college sample (N = 8,020), scores on the Arnett Inventory of Sensation Seeking were positively associated with risk behavior, psychological well-being, and eudaimonic well-being. When sensation seeking dimensions were examined separately, well-being was found to be associated with high novelty seeking but with low intensity seeking.
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