A comparison of sensation seeking among different groups of athletes and nonathletes

Abstract

The major purpose of this study was to compare the sensation seeking needs of different groups of athletes and nonathletes of both sexes. Athletes from four male sport teams (lacrosse, rugby, crew and soccer) and five female sport teams (soccer, Volleyball, softball, tennis and golf) from a local university participated in the study. Male and female nonathletes also served as subjects. All subjects were administered the Sensation Seeking Scale V (SSS). A major finding in contrast to Gundersheim's ( International Journal of Sport Psychology, 18, 87–99, 1987) study, was that male athletes scored higher on sensation seeking than male nonathletes. In another departure from previous findings, contact sport athletes (rugby and lacrosse) scored higher on SSS than noncontact male sport athletes (crew and soccer). In other results, female athletes had significantly higher SSS scores than female nonathletes and both groups of males (athletes and nonathletes) exhibited stronger SSS needs than their female counterparts. The discrepancy in findings, reported above, are explained by the different methods of measuring SSS and different groups of athletes involved in the studies.