Previous research on sensation seeking (SS) was dominated by a variable-oriented approach indicating that SS level has a linear relation with a host of problem behaviors. Our aim was to provide a person-oriented methodology—a probabilistic clustering—that enables examination of both inter- and intra-individual differences in not only the level, but also in the pattern of SS. We have applied model-based clustering to a four-semester long longitudinal high school survey (N = 3334) and to a cross-sectional university survey (N = 438). The results indicated that impulsive patterns are linked to negative outcomes whereas non-impulsive patterns are associated with positive outcomes. Our study aims to serve as a methodological example on how to apply model-based clustering to examine different types of sensation-seeking patterns. This modern clustering method allows for probabilistic categorization, with continous typicality scores besides cluster membership variables. These typicality scores turned out to have higher temporal stability than simple categorical membership variables did.
AlujaA.KuhlmanM.ZuckermanM. (2010). Development of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire (ZKA-PQ): A factor/facet version of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ). Journal of Personality Assessment, 92(5), 416–431.
2.
AsendorpfJ. B. (2002). The puzzle of personality types. European Journal of Personality, 16, 1–5.
3.
AsendorpfJ. B.BorkenauP.OstendorfF.van AkenM. A. G. (2001). Carving personality description at its joints: Confirmation of three replicable personality prototypes for both children and adults. European Journal of Personality, 15, 169–198.
4.
BergmanL. R. (1988). You can’t classify all of the people all of the time. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 23, 425–441.
5.
BergmanL. R.AnderssonH. (2010). The person and the variable in developmental psychology. Journal of Psychology, 218(3), 155–165.
6.
BergmanL. R.MagnussonD.El-KhouriB. M. (2003). Studying individual development in an interindividual context. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
7.
BergmanL. RNurmiJ.-E.von EyeA. A. (2012) I-states-as-objects-analysis (ISOA): Extensions of an approach to studying short-term developmental processes by analyzing typical patterns. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 36(3), 237–246.
8.
BorsboomD.MellenberghG. J.van HeerdenJ. (2003). The theoretical status of latent variables. Psychological Review, 110, 203–219.
9.
CollinsL. M.LanzaS. T. (2010). Latent class and latent transition analysis. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
10.
ColomR.EscorialS.ShihP. C.PrivadoJ. (2007). Fluid intelligence, memory span, and temperament difficulties predict academic performance of young adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences, 42(8), 1503–1514.
11.
DickmanS. J. (1990). Functional and dysfunctional impulsivity: Personality and cognitive correlates. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 95–102.
12.
EatonD. K.KannL.KinchenS.ShanklinS.RossJ.HawkinsJ., … Wechsler, H. (2010). Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance – United States 2009. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Surveillance Summaries, MMWR, 4 June 2010, 59(SS-5), 1–142.
13.
EysenckS. B. G.EysenckH. J. (1970). Crime and personality: An empirical study of the three factor theory. British Journal of Criminology, 10, 225–239.
14.
FraleyC.RafteryA. E. (1998). How many clusters? Which clustering methods? Answers via model-based cluster analysis. Computer Journal, 41, 578–588.
15.
FraleyC.RafteryA. E. (2002). Model-based clustering, discriminant analysis, and density estimation. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 97, 611–631.
16.
FraleyC.RafteryA. E. (2007). Model-based methods of classification: Using the mclust software in chemometrics. Journal of Statistical Software, 18(6), 1–13.
17.
GlicksohnJ.AbulafiaJ. (1998). Embedding sensation seeking within the big three. Personality and Individual Differences, 25, 1085–1099.
18.
HibbelB.AnderssonB.BjarnassonT.AhlströmS.BalakirevaO.KokkeviA.MorganM. (2004). The ESPAD Report 2003. Alcohol and other drug use among students in 35 European countries. Stockholm, Sweden: The Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs (CAN) & Council of Europe, Co-operation Group to Combat Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Drugs (Pompidou Group).
19.
HicksB. M.MarkonK. E.ChristopherJ.KreugerR. F.NewmanJ. P. (2004). Identifying psychopathy subtypes on the basis of personality structure. Psychological Assessment, 16, 276–288.
20.
HittnerJ. B.SwickertR. (2006). Sensation seeking and alcohol use: A meta-analytic review. Addictive Behaviors, 31, 1383–1401.
21.
HoyleR. H.StephensonM. T.PalmgreenP.LorchE. P.DonohewR. L. (2002). Reliability and validity of a brief measure of sensation seeking. Personality and Individual Differences, 32, 404–414.
22.
KaneT. A.LoxtonN. J.StaigerP. K.DaweS. (2004). Does the tendency to act impulsively underlie binge eating and alcohol use problems? An empirical investigation. Personality and Individual Differences, 36, 83–94.
23.
KrauthJ.LienertG.A. (1982). Fundamentals and modifications of configural frequency analysis (CFA). Interdisciplinaria, 3(1), 1–14.
24.
LaursenB.HoffE. (2006). Person-centered and variable-centered approaches to longitudinal data. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 52, 377–389.
25.
LaursenB. P.HoffE. (1951). Person-centered and variable-centered approaches to longitudinal data. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 52(3), 377–389.
LevineS. Z.JacksonC. J. (2004). Eysenck’s theory of crime revisited: Factors or primary scales?Legal and Criminal Psychology, 9, 135–152.
28.
Lloyd-RichardsonE. E.PapandonatosG.KazuraA.StantonC.NiauraR. (2002). Differentiating stages of smoking intensity among adolescents: Stage-specific psychological, social, and contextual influences. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70(4), 998–1009.
29.
MagidsonJ.VermuntJ. K. (2002). Latent class models for clustering: A comparison with K-means. Canadian Journal of Marketing Research, 20, 36–43.
30.
MagnussonD.AllenV. L. (1983). Implications and applications of an interactional perspective for human development. In MagnussonD.AllenV. L. (Eds.), Human Development: An interactional perspective (pp. 3–31). New York, NY: Academic Press.
31.
MannL. M.ChassinL.SherK. J. (1987). Alcohol expectancies and the risk for alcoholism. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 55, 411–417.
32.
MeilaM.HeckermanD. (1998). An experimental comparison of several clustering and initialization methods. Microsoft Research Technical report MSR-TR-98-06.
33.
MunE. Y.von EyeA.BatesM. E.VaschilloE. G. (2008). Finding groups using model-based cluster analysis: Heterogeneous emotional self-regulatory processes and heavy alcohol use risk. Developmental Psychology, 44(2), 481–495.
34.
NarboneL. E. (2009). Four sensation seeking personality subtraits predicting the extent of ecstasy use in undergraduate college students(Doctoral dissertation). Capella University, Minneapolis, MN.
35.
NiggJ. T.GlassJ. M.WongM. M.PoonE.JesterJ. M.Fitzgerald…ZuckerR. A. (2004). Neuropsychological executive functioning in children at elevated risk from alcoholism: Findings in early adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 302–314.
36.
R Development Core Team. (2011). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Available at: http://www.R-project.org/
37.
RadloffL. S. (1977) The CES-D scale: A self report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385–401.
38.
RobertiJ. W. (2004). A review of behavioral and biological correlates of sensation seeking. Journal of Research in Personality, 38, 256–279.
39.
RossierJ.HansenneM.BaudinN.MorizotJ. (2012). Zuckerman’s revised alternative five-factor model: Validation of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja personality questionnaire in four French-speaking countries. Journal of Personality Assessment, 94(4), 358–365.
40.
SchwarzG. (1978). Estimating the dimension of a model. The Annals of Statistics, 6, 461–464.
41.
SterbaS. K.BauerD. J. (2010). Matching method with theory in person-oriented developmental psychopathology research. Development and Psychopathology, 22, 239–254.
42.
SurányiZ.AlujaA. (2012). A cross-cultural comparison with the Alternative Five Factor Model (AFFM) of personality: Catalan versus Hungarian. Manuscript submitted for publication.
43.
TangneyJ. P.BaumeisterR. F.BooneA. L. (2004). High self-control predicts good adjustment, less pathology, better grades, and interpersonal success. Journal of Personality, 72, 271–324.
44.
UrbánR. (2010). Smoking outcome expectancies mediate the association between sensation seeking, peer smoking, and smoking among young adolescents. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 12, 59–68.
45.
von EyeA. (1990). Configural frequency analysis of longitudinal multivariate responses. In von EyeA. (Ed.), Statistical methods in longitudinal research (Vol. 2, pp. 545–570). New York, NY: Academic Press.
46.
ZuckermanM. (1994). Behavioral expressions and biosocial bases of sensation seeking. New York, NY: Cambridge Press.
47.
ZuckermanM. (2005). Psychobiology of personality. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
