Undergraduate marijuana use as related to internal sensation novelty seeking and openness to experience

Abstract

Used 148 male and 130 female college students as Ss and replicated and expanded upon previous findings in marijuana personality research. It was found that the greater the self‐reported frequency of marijuana use across Ss, the higher the cores on creativity and adventuresomeness tests tended to be and the lower the scores on autoritarianism tended to be. Males were more frequent users than females; Jews more frequent users than Protestants or Catholics. A new variable, internal sensation novelty seeking, was found to be correlated with self‐reported frequency of marijuana use. Self‐reported length of marijuana use was not related to any of the major variables, with the singular exception that after 2 years of use, expressed boredom with the environment decreased significantly.

A Twin Study of Personality and Illicit Drug Use and Abuse/Dependence

“…There is an extensive body of literature that posits a strong correlation between dimensions of personality and illicit drug use and abuse/dependence (Ball et al, 1998;Dughiero et al, 2001;Eisenman et al, 1980;Fergusson & Horwood, 2000;Laviola et al, 1999;Spotts & Shontz, 1984;Spotts & Shontz, 1991). Some genetically informative studies propose a genetic commonality between personality and licit drugs like alcohol and nicotine.…”

“…A study of a New Zealand birth cohort of 16-year-olds showed that a significant proportion of the common vulnerability to use alcohol, nicotine or cannabis was explained by NS (Lynskey et al, 1998). Another study of 278 college undergraduates showed greater reported marijuana use in individuals with high NS (Eisenman et al, 1980). We note that overlapping genetic factors comprise a large part of this association.…”

“…Several clinical studies support the relationship between elevated NS and use of marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy (Dughiero et al, 2001;Eisenman et al, 1980;Fergusson & Horwood, 2000;Laviola et al, 1999). Also, high E scores are associated with more frequent use of illicit drugs when transitioning from adolescence to adulthood (Guy et al, 1994;Spotts & Shontz, 1984;Spotts & Shontz, 1991).…”

Thou shalt not: Religiosity and attitudes toward marijuana legalization

“…People of different religious denominations report different levels of marijuana use; Mormons are consistently found to use marijuana the least (Amoateng and Bahr, 1986;Marsiglia et al, 2005). Protestants and Catholics are found to have very similar views toward the legalization of marijuana and are less likely to favor legalization than respondents who are Jewish or identify with other religions (Eisenman et al, 1980;Hoffmann and Miller, 1997;Martino and Truss, 1973). Those who are not religious report the highest amount of marijuana use (Amoateng and Bahr, 1986;Bartkowski and Xu, 2008;Desmond et al, 2008;Hoffmann and Miller, 1997;Marsiglia et al, 2005).…”

“…A substantial amount of research supports the negative association between religiosity and the use of, and attitude toward, marijuana (Amoateng and Bahr, 1986;Bahr et al, 1998Bartkowski and Xu;, 2008;Chu, 2007;Cochran and Akers, 1989;Desmond et al, 2008;Eisenman et al, 1980;Hastings and Hoge, 1986;Hoffmann and Miller, 1997;Klein et al, 2006;Marsiglia et al, 2005;Martino and Truss, 1973;Pullen et al, 1999;Steinman et al, 2008;Stylianou, 2004;Tittle and Welch, 1983;Walker et al, 2007;Wallace et al, 2007). While the present study examines attitudes about marijuana legalization, prior research has tended to focus on the use of marijuana.…”