Openness remains one of the essential five personality traits of Big Five personality theory. It indicates how an individual within a certain social group is open-minded. Under normal circumstances, an individual with the highest level of openness experience in personality tests usually enjoys a series of new things. They usually have distinct characteristics such as curiosity, imaginativeness, and open-mindedness to everything that occurs under any given circumstances. It has been noticed that comparatively low individuals in openness would cease to try new things in the social environment. They are normally literal in nature, close-minded, and enjoy having systematic routines.
On the other hand, sensation seeking is defined as pursuing different and new sensations, experiences, and feelings. This systematic experience presents a description of people who chase complex novels, intense sensations, and people who are so passionate about pursuing new experiences. Therefore, this paper investigates the relationship between openness and sensation seeking.
Openness and sensation-seeking have shown the characteristics of life satisfaction. Open-minded persons normally share their day-to-day life phenomena with the individuals in the social context. Whenever there is a depressing challenge, an open-minded person is likely to share the experience and is likely to be given psychological support, which is essential in addressing such a challenge (Moynihan et al., 2021). As such, they are less likely to suffer from depression than individuals who are not open-minded. Likewise, the sensation-seeking person relies upon having fun with other people in the community, and in the process, they will engage in sharing opportunities and challenges (Fayn, & Kuppens, 2017). This will categorically reduce the chances of stress and make the whole living experience to be memorable and fun. The two have appeared to have an impact on a person’s vulnerability to stress. Studies have shown that the person’s average level of living satisfaction has extensively remained stable in all life span contexts. This becomes true even whenever there is a change in the environment. As such, openness and sensation seeking are go-getters, and they always remain optimistic in any environment.
Both openness and sensation seeking are linked with extraversion. Because of their unique traits, both individuals tend to seek out the company and stimulate other people. The enjoyment of the external world characterizes them. In the process, the individuals normally thrive on action orientation, enthusiasm, and massive excitement in any of the given contexts. As such, openness and sensation-seeking individuals are more likely to become the centre of attention in any of the groups. Studies reveal that extroverted individuals normally engage in thrill and adventure-seeking, and in the process, they are prone to experience a high level of self-esteem (Moynihan et al., 2021). This positive attribution of o extraversion can be argued that individuals with these characteristics usually attribute their self-worth with whatever they have accomplished. In this case, the more adventure and thrill their experience, the more the need of engaging in activities that will improve their self-worth.
Openness and sensation seeking have been established that the higher levels of Sensation Seeking Boredom Susceptibility remain negative whenever correlated to life satisfaction. As such, the two individuals rarely experience boredom issues, and they are commonly tolerant of many issues in society (Moynihan et al., 2021. Their social inclination is normally received with fun. In the process, both open individuals and sensation seekers are likely to have more friends and be helped whenever a challenge occurs (Burri, 2017). They are most likely to succeed in careers where interactions with people are commons, such as public relations, politics and sales, and marketing careers. This is because the enjoyment of the external world characterizes such individuals. In the process, the individuals normally thrive on action orientation, enthusiasm, and massive excitement in any of the given contexts.
In conclusion, openness and sensation-seeking individuals have shown a similar relationship, as shown in the above illustrations. One of the key issues with such individuals is the ability to cope up with depression in society. Whenever there is a depressing challenge, an open-minded person is likely to share the experience and is likely to be given psychological support, which is essential in addressing such a challenge. As such, they are less likely to suffer from depression than individuals who are not open-minded. Likewise, the sensation-seeking person relies on having fun with other people in the community, and in the process, they will engage in sharing opportunities and challenges. There is room for further exploration of the relationship between openness and sensation-seeking individuals. In my opinion, recent journals indicating how openness and sensation-seeking individuals cope with the COVID-19 pandemic are needed to pave the way for exploration of future challenges that affects humanity in different contexts.
References
Burri, A. (2017). Sexual sensation seeking, sexual compulsivity, gender identity and its relationship with sexual functioning in a population sample of men and women. The journal of sexual medicine, 14(1), 69-77.
Fayn, K., & Kuppens, P. (2017). Individual differences in embracing negatively valenced art: The roles of openness and sensation seeking. Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 40.
Moynihan, A. B., Igou, E. R., & van Tilburg, W. A. (2021). Bored stiff: the relationship between meaninglessness, sexual sensation seeking, and promiscuous attitudes via boredom susceptibility. Personality and Individual Differences, 168, 110295.
Reardon, K. W., Wang, M., Neighbors, C., & Tackett, J. L. (2019). The personality context of adolescent gambling: Better explained by the Big Five or sensation-seeking?. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 41(1), 69-80.
