Seeking courage: how courage is linked with sensation seeking and morality

Abstract

Introduction: Courageous behaviour could be determined by both genes (talent) and environment (upbringing). The purpose of this study is to describe the elationship between participants levels of declarative courage and the intensity of the sensation-seeking trait. For the purposes of the study, courage was defined as the willingness to take action in the face of risk (Woodard, 2007). Method: The study was conducted using a questionnaire method, the level of selected trait variables was measured using the Woodard Pury Courage Scale-23 (WPCS-23), Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS), Polish adaptation of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ-PL). The WPCS-23 and BSSS were translated into Polish for the purposes of the study in a backtranslation the authors of the original versions. Results: The general indicator of sensation seeking has been shown to be positively related to courage; moreover, experience seeking and adventure and excitement seeking have been shown related to courage stronger than susceptibility to boredom, disengagement. Experience-seeking, adventure-seeking and excitement-seeking are predictors of respondents levels of courage. The structure of morality has little relation to the courage of participants. No moral code is a predictor for courage. Conclusions: The study was conducted to explore the relation between sensation seeking and different categories of morality with courage and the nature of human behaviour in social situations. We were interested in the structure of sensationseeking among the respondents and what traits/values guide them when making decisions. This study has proven that sensation seeking is a predictor of courage. The participants morality has shown little relationship to courage. In further research, we suggest focusing on the social aspectsof courage versus sensation seeking and morality with a larger and representative sample.