Word: farleyism
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...Psychologist Frank Farley of the University of Wisconsin tells it, many of the world's daredevils, doers and delinquents share a common personality, Type T (for thrill seeking). Whether scientists or criminals, mountain climbers or hot-dog skiers, says Farley, all are driven by temperament, and perhaps biology, to a life of constant stimulation and risk taking. Both the socially useful and the socially appalling Type Ts, he says, "are rejecting the strictures, the laws, the regulations--they are pursuing the unknown, the uncertain...
...Farley, 48, has spent 20 years of study to reach his Type T theory. In one series of tests with student volunteers at Madison, Wis., he made a connection between drinking and thrill seeking. While non-T personalities may drink to grow numb, Type Ts drink to shed inhibitions and are prone to act disruptively while under the influence. Says Farley: "It's experimenting with forbidden fruit." He finds that Type Ts have twice as many automobile accidents as non- Ts, and many even make a point of driving while drunk for the added excitement and risk. "We have become...
...Farley's work is in a field of research known as arousal studies. A major assumption of researchers is that a broad curve traces the susceptibility to stimulation in the general population: at one end of the spectrum are those who need excitation; at the other end are people who feel so overwhelmed by the normal stimulation of everyday life that they devote themselves to avoiding any further stress, risk or adventure. This avoidance group would include those who are comfortable with routine, and perhaps agoraphobics. Farley thinks schizophrenics and the autistic might belong in the non-T category...
...Farley, who classifies himself as a moderate T, thinks there is a physical predisposition toward risk taking and says a few studies of identical twins support the notion. Another psychologist, Marvin Zuckerman of the University of Delaware, also proffers a physical explanation: Zuckerman says sensation seekers may have distinctly different brain chemistry. Despite their various emphases, researchers in the field generally reject the idea that risk takers are acting compulsively out of a neurotic need or a desire to solve a psychological problem...
...Farley also believes that the U.S. has developed into a Type T nation. Since the country is largely made up of the descendants of immigrants who took the supreme risk of uprooting themselves to come to the New World, he says, the nation's genetic stock and national culture should be heavily Type T. "If I'm right on that," Farley conjectures, "we should be an enormously vital nation with both T-plus, creative people, and T-minus, destruc tive people, both overrepresented." He adds, "We should--and do--have very high crime rates relative to many other countries...