Overview
In the field of psychology, the term “novelty-seeking” is considered a core personality or character trait that has substantial empirical backing in psychology and biology.
C. Robert Cloninger is a psychiatrist who proposed the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), which breaks down novelty-seeking into four subscales:
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Exploratory excitability vs. Stoic indifference
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Impulsiveness vs. Reflection
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Extravagance vs. Reserve
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Disorderliness vs. Regimentation
Cloninger argued that novelty-seeking emerged in individuals who have low baseline dopamine activity, which prompts them to experiment more in the outside world to chase rewards. Although the TCI model has faced criticisms for its general efficacy and Cloninger’s attempts to map traits to neurotransmitters has since been found to be oversimplified, clinicians often use it as a tool to assess the potential for certain personality disorders. For instance, having high novelty-seeking traits while also having low harm-avoidance traits helps generate a risk profile for substance use disorders. This is distinct from there being some kind of discrete or distinct addictive personality though.