Sensation seeking is a trait we all have and includes the search for complex and new experiences. Thrill Seekers, people with high-sensation seeking personalities, crave exotic and intense experiences even when physical or social risks are involved. This course helps learners examine the remarkable world of the high-sensation seeking personality and explores the lifestyle, psychology, and neuroscience behind thrill seekers.
[OPTIONAL] Interview with a Fire Chief
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From the course by Emory University
The Psychology of Thrill Seekers
10 ratings
From the lesson
Is High Sensation Seeking a Superpower or a Super Problem?
In this week, we consider how to perceive high sensation seeking and look at the overall benefits and issues as well as how to keep high sensation seeking in check.
Meet the Instructors
Kenneth CarterProfessor of Psychology
Oxford College
So, I'm here in Decatur Georgia at the Fire Station Number One talking with
Deputy Chief Morrison about
her experiences in terms of the sensation seeking questionnaire and also,
about some of the other things that she's been up to.
So, thank you so much for allowing us here in your firehouse.
How long have you been doing this, how long have you been here?
I have been in the fire service for 15 years.
I've been with city Decatur since June,
but I spent 15 years in DeKalb County.
Okay. And what was the thing,
so 15 years ago when you thought to come into this career,
what was it that sort of brought you to this?
I don't know, when you think about kids when
they were little and you see little boys running behind fire trucks and stuff,
that was me. Only I was a girl.
Like I remember seeing fire trucks on my way to school,
just seen them run calls and I was like,
"Oh my god, that's what I want to do".
I always wanted to do that.
And I told my older sister who's very girly and she's like,
"Oh, that's so awesome,
you can get your nails done".
And I got on the service and there's like no getting your nails done.
So it sounds like you've sort of known ever since you were just a little kid.
Oh, yeah.
Since I was a kid.
And what is it about it that's exciting to you?
I've always had the knack to help people.
And I always saw myself in situations I've,
even been I got on this fire service,
just helping people and just kind of doing what I thought
to do and then walking away never hanging around for the camera or whatever.
Just kind of always being in the right place at the right time, if you will.
So, I knew it was something that I had to do.
I knew I wanted to do it but it's just when you get that opportunity,
you've got to take that, you've got to seize the moment.
Do you feel like there's a part of your personality
that makes you particularly suited for this job?
Absolutely.
Absolutely. And I know the cliche is that you always hear people say, "Oh,
you've got to you've got to want to help people,
you've got to want to like people and those kinds of things".
I think the personality,
the trait that you have to have to do
this job is you have to be willing to take those risks.
You can't do this job knowing
that you're risking your life every day for people that you don't know.
All right.
And knowing that there's no reward.
The only reward is if you get to do
something that great and not every day is going to be that way.
So, I think the strongest personality trait you need
to have is that you have to understand what you're getting into,
and I think you just have to know who you are and what the job entails.
Okay. And so, what are some of your duties as deputy chief,
like what are the things that you're responsible for?
Now, I'm all administrative.
So, I'm responsible for all the day to day operations of the Fire Department.
So, that's from trucks to staffing,
payroll, anything dealing administrative.
So, I don't no longer get on the trucks and go out in the field to help people.
So, now, I'm more behind the scenes just helping the staff. That's it.
Right. Do you miss that part of your job sometimes?
I do. I do.
I can't say that I don't. I absolutely do.
I'm still so engaged that when
I hear sirens and I see trucks I'm always look at who is it.
I wonder if I know them, that kind of thing.
The same thing other people do when they see fire trucks,
"Oh what's going on?" I still do that.
Right. Do you get excited when you hear that?
Oh. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it sounds kind of strange that you
would get excited when you hear that because
the backside of that is that somebody is having an emergency.
And so, something bad is happening.
But then, you also know when you hear those sirens that something good is coming along.
Right. That help is on it's way.
Yes, absolutely.
And so, with your involved in staffing,
do you interview new people coming into the station?
Okay. So, how do you know when someone is suited
for this job or they might not be suited for it?
It is definitely part of the questions that we ask and the answers that they give.
And you can tell if people are sincere.
And some people be quite honest with you and just say, "Oh,
I just need a job". So you know it's not in their heart.
But you know those ones that say,
"This is always what I wanted to do,
this is what I signed up to do".
You ask questions like have you applied to
the fire department and they go," Well, yeah I have".
So you know they want to do it and it's not just something that they just decide," Okay,
I just woke up today and I think I'm going to be a firefighter."
Okay. Are there people you feel like who are sort of these thrill seeking kind of
personalities that apply for this job that
you think would be good for them to have this job or not good.
Is there a part of that sometimes that happens?
I think so. I think you're going to get a fair amount of both.
Those that are thrill seekers and those that aren't.
The ones that are thrill seekers,
you have to be careful with them because this is
a very dangerous job and it's inherently dangerous.
And our job sometimes is to send them in
into dangerous places where the outcome may not be so great.
So you have to be careful because those are the people that will do
things on a scene that you necessarily don't want them doing without instructions.
We call that freelancing.
Okay.
So we have a span of control for that.
Right.
And it's pretty one of the stiffest rules that we have.
There's no freelancing on any emergency call because you can get injured,
or you can get hurt or hurt someone else.
And what about the people who are those sort are thrill seekers
or since that sort of thrill and adventure seeking,
the board in peace.
Sometimes there's things that are not going on
in the firehouse when there's some downtime.
Do people sometimes get themselves into trouble in that downtime, sometimes?
No, because there's always training.
Okay.
There's always things that we can do to keep people from being bored.
But I think the boredom part of it is, I guess,
if you go several hours or several shifts without a call,
but that's very rare in the fire space.
Okay.
Very rare in the fire space.
And when that happens, it sounds like you've got something
to keep people occupied so they don't get bored.
Absolutely.
Okay.
Absolutely. There's always continuous training.
And the training, they were doing training today and
they were in full turnout gear and doing things that they wouldn't normally do.
So it still keeps the adrenaline going and keeps them moving and active.
Okay. So you can really do that in a way that's going to be helpful in the long run.
Absolutely.
Okay. So I was looking through your scores and one of
your higher scores are for thrill and adventure seeking kind of thing.
So what are some thrill and adventure seeking things that
you've done before or what would you like to do?
I thought before I turned 40 that I would want to jump out of an airplane.
But then I decided that no I don't want to do that.
So, I guess the most adventurous and most thrill
seeking thing that I do is probably deep sea fishing.
Okay.
And I say that and while most people say,
"Well the water's calm and everything".
I always do it without a life vest and I can't swim.
Oh, oh my god.
And is it better without a life vest?
Does it feel more free?
It's not just something I think about.
Okay.
I mean I fish with my brothers.
I deep sea fish with my three brothers and we never
wear a life vest and we always get off the boat and go, "We didn't have a life vest on".
And we do it every single time.
How big can the fish get?
Oh, pretty big.
Yeah. We've caught some record breaker snapper and things, so yeah.
That must be kind of exciting too.
Yeah, it's the thrill of the fight.
That's true.
So what do your friends say about your job?
Well, for me, it's a little different because I am
female and so the thought of even the female doing that.
You always get the question "Do you really put that gear on?
Do you go in house on fires?
Or, do you?" Yeah, I really do that.
I am a Firefighter. That is what I do.
So they're very supportive and I'm always thinking that everything they see on the news,
even my family they call.
"We saw something on TV". That wasn't us.
That was someone else, but they're engaged.
They're actively involved and engaged and very supportive of what I do, so yeah.
It sounds like they're proud of you.
Very, yeah. And my daughter is ecstatic and I tried to get her on but it's not for her.
See that's that question you asked before.
It's not for her. I'll do it mommy because you do it.
Right.
But it's not really what I want to do.
And I would not want her to be in that field because she would be miserable.
Yeah. It sounds like part of it it's got to
be something that's sort of a part of who you are.
Absolutely. It is deep in you.
It's one of those things that you can't live without.
If there are things in your life that you can't live without.
Most people say I can't live without my spouse.
I don't know what I would do without my spouse or my children.
That's how I view my job.
It's the same way I can't imagine being anything other than a firefighter.
Wow. What do you do to relax when on those days when you're not here.
What do you do to sort of recharge?
I hang out with my grandbaby.
And we go shopping or eat sushi,
which is very adventurous because she will eat sushi and all kinds.
And then of course the deep sea fishing.
That is the most calm.
Water is calming for me.
And I think that's another reason why I'm like into it
because a lot of water is involved and water is very calming for me, so.
And so, what kinds of situations are hard for you to tolerate?
Are there things that sort of get on your nerves or that
make you sort of irritated sometimes in general?
I think inadequacy job performance probably,
especially at the level that I'm currently functioning at as a deputy chief.
That's important for me because
I didn't come from the outside and get an administrative position.
I worked my way from the bottom,
so I know what the job entails and so when I see anything other
than the hard work and perseverance that this job requires,
that to me is unacceptable.
And at a place like this,
you could really put someone's life at risk.
Right. Absolutely. And that's why we always have to give 110 percent because of that.
It's not just your brothers and sisters on the units with you,
the people that we service,
they depend on us to be at this all the time.
And so, inadequacy at your job is just unacceptable.
Okay. That makes sense. You are involved in the hiring process.
How can you tell when someone is suited for this job?
Just by their questions,
their answers I'm sorry, their responses that they gave us.
If they've done the job before,
if they're very clear.
And there's always standard questions that we ask.
But I always like to go a little bit deeper because I want to find it at heart.
I want to find out if that's in your heart or if you're
just here because you had nothing else to do.
So, I like to ask those questions like,
"Have you really researched what firefighters do?
Do you understand that this job is not guaranteed,
you come in one day and that may be your last day?"
So, I ask those questions just to gauge their response,
verbally and mentally, just how they respond,
how they look because sometimes it's a shock,
they go out and think about that.
Right. That makes sense. So are there any sort of misconceptions
about firefighting that you want to clear up.
Like things that people think that firefighters do or
the job is like while it's actually different from that?
The first thing is that this job is not one dimensional.
We don't just fight fire.
Right.
We run a lot of EMS calls,
we run alarms, we do a lot of community service.
The other thing is we don't just sit and watch TV and cook great meals.
That's nice, but I think a lot of people have
that perception and that's just because historically,
firefighters are just not out in the community,
which is different in a city Decatur.
We're very community driven.
But for the most part, nationally,
that we only come when people call 911.
And so, and we're working on that.
Being just more perceived in the public as being out there,
not just when you're at your worst,
but that is the biggest misconception that we do
nothing but sit on the couch and watch TV.
Okay. Is there anything I didn't ask you about that
you would like to tell everyone that might be watching this?.
Just one thing, and I typically don't get into this too
much but I think it's important that women know that they can do this job.
I think it's important that young girls know that they can do this job.
I think it's important that little girls know that they can do this job.
Because we are in this field in this profession and we do it well.
There are tons of women in the fire service,
you just don't get to hear about it because it's a male dominated field.
So again, when I started,
I was a little older when I started,
I was 33 and that's kind of old they say to start
in a fire service but from that point where I am now,
I started from recruit to now second in command of a fire department.
So, not only can it be done, it has been done.
Absolutely. Thank you.
And as being somebody that so low sensation seeker and a low thrill seeker,
I think it's awesome that you guys are doing this and it's wonderful to protect us all.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
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