Sensation seeking and negative emotional recovery: Differential speeds of emotional recovery and preferences for personality-congruent positive emotions among high and low sensation seekers

The goals of this research were to identify how an individual factor, sensation seeking, influenced the effect of high and low arousal positive emotions: (1) on speed of recovery from anxiety arousal (induced by film clips); and (2) on film preference after anxiety arousal (induced by a speech preparation task). Two studies and exploratory analyses were conducted to examine these effects. Study 1 tested Hypothesis 1, that high sensation seekers (HSS) would recover from anxiety film arousal faster with a high arousal film ("Roller Coaster"), and low sensation seekers (LSS) with a low arousal film ("Waves"). Study 2 tested Hypothesis 2, that after anxiety arousal (speech task), HSS would choose a high arousal film and LSS would choose a low arousal film. Study 2 also tested Hypothesis 3, that recovery in Study 1 would predict film choice in Study 2. Ninety Caucasian undergraduate students at the University of Michigan prescreened on sensation seeking participated in these studies (sample = 55% female; 53% HSS; mean age = 19yrs.).;Hypothesis 1 was partially supported. LSS recovered faster (via self-report) than HSS with "Waves"; and HSS recovered faster (via smiles) than LSS with "Roller Coaster". Likewise, LSS recovered faster with "Waves" than "Roller Coaster"; and HSS recovered faster with "Roller Coaster" than "Waves". Hypothesis 2 was not supported. Nearly half of HSS chose the low arousal film, and half of LSS chose the high arousal film in Study 2, thus no relationship was found between sensation seeking and film preference. Hypothesis 3 was also not supported. Logistic regression analyses revealed that neither sensation seeking, the recovery variables, or their interactions predicted film preference. Exploratory analyses revealed that desire to see something exhilarating significantly predicted preferring the high arousal film, regardless of sensation seeking. This finding may be, however, due to response bias.;Overall, the results, though complex, suggest that sensation seeking moderates the speed with which individuals recover from anxiety arousal via positive emotions. The effect of sensation seeking on film preference, however, remains unclear due to possible artifacts (e.g., film options) in Study 2. Research limitations, applications, and future directions are discussed.