[1] Zuckerman created the scale with the purpose of better understanding personality traits such as neuroticism, antisocial behavior, and psychopathy.
[4] This paper found that there were four components to sensation seeking: thrill; social; visual; and antisocial.
The scale slightly changed the factors to thrill and adventure seeking, drug and alcohol attitudes and social disinhibition.
[7] Items from the Sensation Seeking Scale include: In the late 1950s, Zuckerman and colleagues conducted a study using a sensory deprivation isolation chamber and recorded participants' reactions.
The 22-item scale was originally developed to have a much more narrow construct validity when it came to predicting sensory deprivation responses.
[7] The SSS was only designed with adults and late adolescent in mind, so a new scale was sought out for children.
[7] Sensation Seeking Scale for Children (SSSC) was introduced in 1991, and held a similar resemblance to the adult version, with the exception of items involving substance abuse and sexual activity.
Three factors are measured in the children's scale: thrill and adventure seeking, drug and alcohol attitudes, and social disinhibition.
The scale was later changed to appropriately included items regarding substance use and sexual activity.
They developed the first BSSS in 2002 to fill the need of a practical application of the Sensation Seeking Scale.
They were then also able to use people who did score higher on this scale to test anti-smoking messages before using them in advertisements.
Those participants, both men and women would take larger amounts, more often of the d-amphetamine pill where ranked higher on the sensation seeking scale.
Studies include how likely students are to play drinking games,[17] condom use during sex was measured with a sensation seeking scale made by Seth C. Kalichman,[18] and the likelihood of drug use and gambling.