Workers’ Sensation Seeking Matters: Development and Validation of the Need for Sensations at Work Scale (NSWS)

Abstract

Although sensation seeking (SS) may be a highly relevant trait in the occupational context, it is still understudied in the field of work and organizational psychology. Probably, one reason is the lack of an appropriate SS instrument for the work context. We therefore developed a scale that measures work-related SS. Results based on a sample of 304 workers provided evidence for the convergent and discriminant validity of the instrument. In an independent sample of 271 workers, confirmatory factor analyses supported a bifactor structure with a global SS factor and three specific domain factors (tension seeking, adrenaline seeking, and heartbeat increase seeking). Based on bifactor indices, essential unidimensionality of the instrument could be assumed. Work-related SS was positively associated with increasing challenging job demands, and a moderating effect of task variety on the relationship between work-related SS and job satisfaction was found. SS was not associated with the number of past job terminations. Overall, the findings indicate that SS may be relevant with regard to workers’ proactive work behaviors and job attitudes. The Need for Sensations at Work Scale (NSWS) now provides a promising measurement instrument to further investigate SS in the work context.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, JS, upon reasonable request.

Declaration of conflicting interest

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 Following guidelines by Cohen (1988), correlation around .10 were considered as low, those around .30 as medium, and those around .50 as high.

2 Participants with survey completion times shorter than 13 minutes in study 1 (n = 23) and shorter than 5:30 minutes in study 2 (n = 20) were dropped. It needs to be noted that no statistical approach was used for identifying speeders. Instead, we tested how fast the survey can be answered when trying to read all of the questionnaire instructions and items as quickly as possible, while still grasping the content.

3 One participant reported being both, an apprentice and a part-time worker.

4 The final 14-item version of the NSWS is available at https://osf.io/zh284?view_only=890ebd47e9c04b5db752a13452c0ab57

5 The bifactor indices showed that the group factors are not particularly viable. Therefore, we do not report results on the relationships between the NSWS subscale scores and work-related outcomes in the main text. For the sake of completion, those results are nevertheless displayed in the supplemental tables (Tables S2.3.1–S2.5.2, OSF).