COMPARATIVE INVESTIGATION ON LEVEL OF SENSATION SEEKING

Research on personality characteristics of individuals with Low Intelligence (LI) is quite few and controversial. This study investigates behaviors and reactions of children with Down Syndrome (DS) or Autism Disorder (AD) based on Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking (SS) Theory, because these two groups show the same patterns reported by high sensation seekers and low sensation seekers. This study is conducted on 9 to 12 years old boys including 37 boys with DS, 16 boys with AD, and 50 boys with normal intelligence (NI) to investigate their SS levels by Sensation Seeking Scale for Children (SSSC). MANOVA results indicated that groups' interaction was significant, and the mean differences in total SS for DS and NI children, and also AD and NI children, were significant; however, the mean difference between total SS scores for children with DS and children with AD was not significant. Also the mean difference between LI and NI children was significant. In conclusion, LI children's SS levels are lower than NI children. The total SS in children with DS and children with AD are lower than NI children but the total SS scores in children with DS and AD are almost the same.

Mental Retardation; Down Syndrome; Autism Disorder; Sensation Seeking.