ISSN: 2456–5474 RNI No.  UPBIL/2016/68367 VOL.- VIII , ISSUE- I February  - 2023
Innovation The Research Concept
Sensation Seeking Behaviour, Health Anxiety and Psychological Well-Being of the Aged
Paper Id :  17201   Submission Date :  2023-02-17   Acceptance Date :  2023-02-22   Publication Date :  2023-02-25
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Monika Sahay
Assistant Professor And Head
Psychology
S.N. Sen B.V. P.G. College
Kanpur,Uttar Pradesh, India
Abstract
The study was designed to investigate the impact of sensation seeking behaviour on health the related anxiety and psychological well-being of aged people. For this purpose a sample of 60 retired people (30 male and 30 female) of 60-70 years of age residing in Bithoor, Deonagar, Kidwai Nagar and Shyam Nagar vicinity of Kanpur city were selected by method of non-probability sampling Zukerman’s sensation seeking scale, a self made health related anxiety scale and Seligman's psychological well being scale were administered. Results revealed that sensation seeking had significant impact on health related anxiety and psychological well being of aged people. High anxiety compared to low sensation seekers. Further, aged persons with high sensation seeking behaviour reported higher level of psychological well-being than the low sensation seekers but it was not statistically significant. The result of correlation showed that as sensation seeking increases the psychological well-being increases and the health and anxiety decreases.
Keywords Psychological, Anxiety, Administered, Ignificant.
Introduction
The study was designed to investigate the impact of sensation seeking behaviour on health the related anxiety and psychological well-being of aged people. For this purpose a sample of 60 retired people (30 male and 30 female) of 60-70 years of age residing in Bithoor, Deonagar, Kidwai Nagar and Shyam Nagar vicinity of Kanpur city were selected by method of non-probability sampling Zukerman’s sensation seeking scale, a self made health related anxiety scale and Seligman's psychological well being scale were administered. Results revealed that sensation seeking had significant impact on health related anxiety and psychological well being of aged people. High anxiety compared to low sensation seekers. Further, aged persons with high sensation seeking behaviour reported higher level of psychological well-being than the low sensation seekers but it was not statistically significant. The result of correlation showed that as sensation seeking increases the psychological well-being increases and the health and anxiety decreases.
Objective of study
In India, trends in demographic transition alarming. It is time for the society and the state to think about the further of the aging population. During the period 1980-2000, the population aged 60 and above and 70 and above is expected to increase by 93 % and 10 1.8 % respectively, whereas the total population will increase only 40% during the same period. As per United Nations classifications, Indian society would progress from a mature society to an aging society.
Review of Literature
This means availability of larger number of elderly persons. As the population of elderly is increasing, the problems of elderly are also increasing. Basically, the problems of elderly in India related to Income, health, physical, Social and psychological aspects. Thus several factors contribute to stress among aged persons but the individual factor like personality may moderate the effects of stress sensation seeking is one such personality variable according to Zuckerman(1979) sensation seeking is one such personality variable according to Zuckerman (1979) sensation seeking is a trait defined by the need for varied noble and complex sensation and experiences and the willingness to take physical and social risks for the sake of such experiences. Sensation seeking is related to many other psychological variables including will-being. According to Diener, such and Oishi( 1997) subjective well-being refers to how people evaluate their lives and it includes such variables as life satisfaction and marital satisfaction, lack of depression and anxiety, as well as positive moods and emotions.
Studies provide evidence that sensation seeking is related to stress and many studies isrelated to stress and many studies have reported that high sensation seeker felt less stress (Zukerman, 1995; Michael, 1996).The findings of a study by Solomon(2006) indicated that high sensation seekers adjust better than low sensation speakers in stressful situations. 
It also indicated that high and low sensation seekers differ on ways of coping and emotional  Stathereby increasing  health and anxiety and that sensation seeking is negatively related to  depression and thus the psychological well-being. The present investigation was carried out to study the impact of sensation seeking on psychological well-being and health and anxiety among elderly people. It was hypothesized that elderly people with high sensation seeking would be more likely to report here is course and psychological well-being and lower scores on health and anxiety than the low sensations seekers.
Methodology
Above device administered to all the elderly persons. Scoring was done as per manual. To compare the mean scores of different groups on psychological well-being and healthy anxiety with reference to sensation seeking t-test and correlation was used.
Sampling
A sample of 60 retired person (30 male and 30 female) of 60-70 years of age ,residing in Bithoor  Deonagar, Kidwai Nagar and Shyam Nagar vicinity of Kanpur city was selected by the method of non- probability sampling.
Tools Used The following tools were employed in the present study
1. Personal data sheet-Personal data sheet was prepared to collect some personal information
2. about elderly persons about age, sex, locations etc.
3. Sensation Seeking Scale- Zuckerman’s sensation seeking scale (1979) was used to measure
4. sensation seeking of elderly people. This scale consists of 19 items. It is a two-point rating
5. scale (true and false). The range of score varies from 0 to 100. It’s test-retest reliability of
6. Coefficient is 0.73. High score indicates high level of sensation seeking.
7. Psychological well-being scale-Martin Seligman, University of Pennsylvania has developed
8. this scale in relation to topic such as general happiness and life satisfaction. This scale has 9
9. items. It is a seven-point scale, ranging from totally disagree to totally agree. It's split-half
10. reliability is 0.76. High score indicates higher level of psychological well-being.
11. Health Anxiety Scale- A self-made inventory was made on the basis of the scale developed
12. by Salkovskis, Remies, Warwick, and Clark, (2002) and some items were added to investigate
13. the health anxiety on the basis of information given in journal regarding questionnaires used
14. in clinical and trauma centres
Result and Discussion

The purpose of present study was to investigate the impact of sensation seeking among elderly persons and on psychological well-being and health anxiety. Low and high sensation seeking groups were framed on the basis of score on sensation seeking scale. However some samples of medium sensation seeking were dropped (N=20). Then t- test was applied to find out the significance of mean differences which are presented in table 1 and 2. The relationship between the variables was established by finding correlation between the scores. Obtained results are presented in table-3.



Table 1
Means, SDs and the t-values of Psychological well-being of elderly persons withreference to sensation seeking



Table 2
Mean, SDs and t-values of Health anxiety of elderly persons with reference to sensation seeking


Table -1 Displays the means and standard deviation of psychological well-being scores of subjects belonging to different sensation seeking group and also displays t-values for mean difference on psychological well-being among elderly people.

Table-2 Displays the means and standard deviations of Health anxiety scores of subjects belonging to different sensation seeking groups and also displays t-values for mean difference on Health anxiety among elderly persons.
Table 3- displays the correlation between sensation seeking behaviour and psychological well-being and the correlation between sensation seeking behaviour and health anxiety among elderl people. The high score indicates highly significant correlation.The results clearly reveal that elderly people with low sensation seeking behaviour show highly significant and positive mean difference in relation to health anxiety in comparison toelderly people who have High sensation seeking behavior (table-2). In reference to psychological well-being (table-1) no significant difference is seen between the means of high and low sensation seekers. But as regards the relationship, between the variables, highly significant results were obtained (table3). It is found that as sensation seeking behaviour increases the psychological well-being increases significantly while the anxiety related to health decreases significantly amongst the elderly people.

Discussion

The results of the present study clearly showed that elderly people with high sensation seeking behaviour experienced higher level of psychological well-being then the low sensation seekers though the difference was not found to be statistically different. The results of correlational analysis show clearly, however, that as sensation seeking behaviour increases the psychological well-being also increases. This result indicates that sensation seeking is probably acting as a moderate factor for psychological well-being. Various earlier studies have also reported sensation seeking to be a moderator of stress (Zukerman, 1995 driner, Suh and Oishi, 1997; Michael, 1996). The reason for higher level of psychological well-being in elderly people with high sensation seeking could be that high sensation seekers are relatively tolerant of stress and they keep themselves involved in novel and varied situations. Thus they become more informed, keep in touch with societal activities more, thus feel less bored. This may increase the elderly people’s happiness and life satisfaction which may increase their overall psychological well-being.
The investigation has also uncovered that elderly people with sensation seeking exhibit higher level of health related anxiety then elderly people with high sensation seeking behaviour (Solomon, 2006). The results of correlation also confirm the above finding that the higher the sensation seeking behavior the lower will be the health and anxiety amongst elderly people. The reason for this could be that sensation seeking moderates the effect of stress in old age and thereby relieves a person of his anxiety or stress related to health. It appears that sensation seeking serves as a protective buffer during times of stress, reducing the negative impact of stressful events in old age such as financial problems, boredom, death of spouse, feeling of isolation, changes in health conditions, etc. Moreover sensation seekers have many other qualities that make them resistance to the effects of stress in old age (Franken, 1992). Smith, Ptacek and smoll (1992) found that High sensation seekers engage in
more active coping. Franken (1992) reported that like of optimists sensation seekerstend to view the world in positive terms and they tend to be highly instrumental which probably helps in the enhancement of the psychological well-being and the lessening of health anxiety. They take the view that life is to be embraced and enjoyed and are ready to disclose their feelings to other (Franken, Gibson and Mohan, 1990). They also have a good sense of humour. These all qualities of high sensation seekers positively contribute towards that enhancement of psychological well-being and decreases health anxiety. 
Conclusion
On the basis of above findings it may be concluded that sensation seeking in elderly people helps them in reducing stress protecting their psychological well being and decreasing then exit is related to health which is the central issued in old age. The results of the study have great implications for the people who will be stepping in old age or who are in old age. Due consideration should be given to this personality trait in general and to the therapist and counselors to understand people and to increase the quality of life.
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