Experience Seekers

The Experience Seekers (ES) Personality

Overall you are good people. I am very sorry that you must die. -- The Experience Seekers Motto

Now, these are very interesting individuals. As I said in the Personality Types article, if you want a hill taken, get these stimulus loving people, Experience Seekers (ES), to take it. Think about this, you see cognitive and emotive people running from burning buildings. However, firefighters burdened with weighty equipment and an old fashioned "can do" attitude will be dashing in. These two types of behaviors, influenced be one's dominant personality, are quite distinctive and telling. The "dashers in" are probably ESs. If you see a patrol car, sirens blasting and lights whirling speeding to a call, the cop turning the corner on two wheels is more than likely an ES. Experience Seekers live for the exciting, stimulating and testosterone laden opportunities in life.

During the Vietnam War, helicopter crews had one of the highest personnel loss rates. Crews dropped troops wherever they were assigned. Where they were assigned was much too frequently in the middle of enemy fire. I have seen pictures of these amazing machines flying sideways between trees. I asked a friend and colleague, who was a "copter" pilot in Vietnam Nam, if he and fellow pilots experienced a rush while defying the laws of physics. His unequivocal answer was "oh, yeah."

Why do seemingly normal people go out of their way to thrown themselves, head first, into dangerous or challenging situations? One theory proposes that they crave the rush of adrenaline. Another more philosophical theory is, "Some people just need more stimulation than the average bear," said Eddie Bela, Associate Professor of Psychology at California State University, Chico. "They're not crazy. They just want to push themselves and experience life."

Remember, ESs will also function as Cognitive and/or Emotive Personalities. They are just as likely to be stoic as to have a burst of strong emotions. Anger is an emotion with which ESs might feel comfortable. How they express their emotions depends on their secondary personality type. The archetypical stoic cowboy appears to have a cognitive secondary function. Jack Palance in City Slickers personifies this tight lipped type. ESs may consider themselves realists and lean more toward pessimism than optimism. They may appear quite calm -- even dead, -- under pressure.

Sherlock Holmes physician, partner and scribe, Dr. John Watson, is an excellent example of an ES with an emotive secondary function. He enjoys adventure, but he also has an emotional nature. Evidently, since he is a scientist, he is also cognitive. Naturally Sherlock Holmes is a quasi - essential example of the cognitive type. Sherlock is primarily interested in the intellectual challenge, not the adventure.

Remember, Dear Reader, people cannot be precisely pigeonholed. A law enforcement officer who is primarily a caretaker (emotive) may be in police work because she wants to serve and protect. In other words, she wants to protect the innocent, rather than chase the bad guys.

What happens if an ES goes to the dark side? Darth Vader was the adventurer who turned evil enforcer. He was the black-shrouded, deep breathing nemesis to Star Wars heroes, Luke Skywalker and Hans Solo. Darth Vader discovered to his chagrin, when one scrutinizes evil it gawps back - evil may even reach out and grab.

Take our "Are You an Experience Seeker?" test and find out how strong your Experience Seeker's personality is expressed.

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