Sensation seeking in driving-under-the-influence offenders.

Abstract

The research on psychoactive substance abuse has been extensive over recent years. Some of this research has linked sensation seeking to chemical use and abuse. The present study was undertaken in order to explore further the are~ of driving-under-the-influence and sensation seeking. The sample population consisted of 63 court-referred driving-under-the-influence offenders. There were 50 men and 13 women. Instrumentation consisted of Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale, Form V. The scores of all subjects, and males and females separately, were compared to the normative data. Male subjects' scores were also compared to female subjects' scores. Analysis of the data found one significant (~ <.05) difference in sensation seeking scores of the subjects in this study as compared to the normative subjects' scores. The male subjects in this study were found to be significantly lower than the normative male subjects in sensation seeking. There was no significant difference found between the sensation seeking scores of men and women in this study. Conclusions drawn from this study point to the age difference between both the men and the women participating in this study and the age of the normative groups. Suggestions are made for further research using a larger number of subjects, enabling scores to be statistically tested by age groups. It is also suggested that further research compare the sensation seeking scores of female driving-under-the-influence offenders with those of a matched control group.