Arab Educational Information Network

The researchers have observed a number of university students and youth in general, are shouting, using harshening words, sharp gaze and socially and educationally unacceptable and dangerous movements. These types of behavior negatively affect the students’ psychological, academic and social maladjustment, both inside and outside the university, and may be in their future. The existence of this problem has been confirmed when the researchers observing a number of youths drive their cars or motorcycles at high speed, frightening other people. All of these types of behavior are referring to the "sensation seeking" behavior. The theoretical and field studies such as (Robbins & Brayan, 2004), (Cauffman, 2008), (Smith & Kahler, 2010) and (Hamdan, 2010) are supporting the need to study this problem behavior among students at University of Babylon. The importance of this research lies in the importance of its population, sample, variable, instrument, findings, suggestions, recommendations, and the scarcity of studies which were dealt with this kind of behavior among university students in Iraq. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing the: 1) level of the sensational seeking among the University of Babylon students (ss.). 2) The statistically significant differences in the level of sensational seeking among the ss., according to their gender (males - females), academic field (scientific - humanities) and the year study (second - third). To achieve the study aims, the two researchers have prepared a scale and assessed its psychometric characteristics, then they applied it to the sample of (440) ss., consisting about (5%) of the population; (of 8830). They have scored the ss. Responses and analyzed the obtained data by using the SSPS package. The findings were: 1) there are no significant differences at (0.05) among the sample subjects in the level of “sensational seeking” behavior. 2) There are statistically significant differences at (0.05) between the male and female subjects in in level of “sensational seeking” behavior, in favor of male ss. 3) There are no statistically significant differences at (0.05) level between the scientific and humanities students in the level of “sensational seeking” behavior. 4) There are no statistically significant differences at (0.05) level between the second- and third-year students in the level of “sensational seeking” behavior. In the light of those findings, the researchers have presented a number of conclusions, recommendations and suggestions. (Published abstract)