You think you know who you are, but do you really? You know you are Type A, aggressive, demanding, sometimes on the edge of exploding. You know you are an Aries, alive with creative ideas you just must express.
But can you say definitively that you're a sensory seeker or avoider? A bystander or sensor? Do you even know?
If not, maybe you should. They address what may be defining characteristics of people, and knowing them and how they work together, or clash, can make your personal and professional life a lot easier.
Seeker, avoider, bystander and sensor are terms that have emerged from the study of sensory experiences: how people relate to sounds, such as rock music, and tastes, such as the sourness of lemonade, and touch, the feel, for example, of silk between the fingers.
Turns out, people have all sorts of reactions to sensory experience, sometimes relishing it but not always. Some sensory experience can be a huge turnoff for some people, such as the clash of cymbals or the sound of chalk on a blackboard.
How people react to sensory experience often dictates how they behave, what they like and dislike and, most important, who they'll get along well with.
All this comes out in a new book, “Living Sensationally,” by Winnie Dunn, a professor and chair of the department of occupational therapy education at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
"I think that the reason that it is important to understand these reactions is that every single human relies on sensory information to guide decisions every day,” says Dunn. “If we can understand the reactions, it can help us to become more accepting of each other.”
Each day life pummels us with sensory experiences from the moment our alarm clock starts the day, says Dunn, but people's reactions to that experience vary wildly.
For instance, one person might love the feeling of walking on a beach, while another might find the grittiness of the sand stressful. One person might love loud concerts while such events may unsettle another. Some people are fussy eaters, while others need the buzz of new flavors.
How folks react to those experiences puts them in one of four groups: seekers, bystanders, avoiders and sensors. Dunn's books aims to help readers figure which group they belong to and how that can make life more fulfilling.
Seekers love sensation. They want spicier food, louder music. Bystanders are less sensitive to sensor experience. They need a bigger input of sensory information before they notice things. Being a bit oblivious, they tend to be easy going and not much bothered about structure and scheduling.
Avoiders, as the term suggests, make their lives manageable by avoiding unnecessary sensory experiences. They choose orderly, scheduled lives. They’ll keep the curtains drawn in the day, leave a room if it gets crowded, and eat a limited range of foods.
Sensors are also highly sensitive to everything but have clear ideas about how to handle their reactions. They have adjusted well to their sensory experiences, understanding their reactions to certain experiences and building their lives around them.
But of course these are broad categories, and Dunn cautions that a person may fall into different categories for different senses. Sensory profiling may show they are a seeker for one sense, yet an avoider for another.
Dunn believes that understanding your own sensory responses and those of your spouse, co-workers and children, can help ease the path through life.
That’s because once identified, the behavior patterns are easy to spot, allowing people to find ways to find solutions to flash points in relationships. Says Dunn: “It is not abstract and obscure. We can see it in our husband and our kids and if we understand it, it turns these reactions from irritating into charming.”
Meanwhile, elsewhere in popcult, new release “Saw IV” finished first at the box offices over the weekend, bringing in $32.1 million. Steve Carrell’s new movie “Dan in Real Life” opened at No. 2 with $12.1 million in ticket sales.
In DVD rentals for the week ended Oct. 21, according to IMDb.com, “Transformers” debuted at No. 1, while “Surf’s Up” fell out of the top spot to No. 3.
On iTunes this morning, Chris Brown’s “Kiss Kiss” featuring T-Pain was No. 1 for the second straight week, with Timbaland’s “Apologize” moving up to No. 2.
And in books, Stephen Colbert’s “I Am America (And You Can Too)” remained at No. 1 on The New York Times’ hardcover nonfiction best-sellers list for the week ended Oct. 20 and also at No. 3 on USA Today’s book chart for the week ended Oct. 21.
|
TOP MOVIES
Weekend Box Office Estimates
Weekend of October 26-28, 2007
|
|
Rank
|
MOVIE
|
Engagements
|
Box office (millions)
|
|
1
|
Saw IV (Lionsgate)
|
3,183
|
$32.11
|
|
2
|
Dan in Real Life (
Buena Vista)
|
1,921
|
$12.08
|
|
3
|
30 Days of Night (Sony)
|
2,859
|
$6.70
|
|
4
|
The Game Plan (
Buena Vista)
|
3,342
|
$6.26
|
|
5
|
Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? (Lionsgate)
|
1,897
|
$5.74
|
|
6
|
Michael Clayton (Warner Bros.)
|
2,585
|
$5.03
|
|
7
|
Gone Baby Gone (Miramax)
|
1,713
|
$3.90
|
|
8
|
The Comebacks (Fox)
|
2,812
|
$3.45
|
|
9
|
We Own the Night (Sony)
|
2,402
|
$3.40
|
|
10
|
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (
Buena Vista)
|
564
|
$3.35
|
|
Source: Yahoo Movies
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|
IMDb TOP DVD RENTALS
Week ending October 21, 2007
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|
Rank
|
TITLE
|
Last week
|
|
1
|
Transformers
|
-
|
|
2
|
Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer
|
2
|
|
3
|
Surf’s Up
|
1
|
|
4
|
Evan Almighty
|
4
|
|
5
|
Planet Terror
|
-
|
|
6
|
A Mighty Heart
|
-
|
|
7
|
Reign Over Me
|
3
|
|
8
|
28 Weeks Later
|
6
|
|
9
|
Knocked Up
|
5
|
|
10
|
The Reaping
|
-
|
|
Source: IMDB
|
|
ITUNES TOP 8 SONG DOWNLOADS
for week ended Monday, October 29, 2007
|
|
Rank
|
TITLE
|
|
1
|
Kiss Kiss, Chris Brown feat. T-Pain
|
|
2
|
Apologize, Timbaland
|
|
3
|
Crank That, Soulja Boy
|
|
4
|
Bubbly, Colbie Caillat
|
|
5
|
No One, Alicia Keys
|
|
6
|
How Far We’ve Come, Matchbox Twenty
|
|
7
|
Gimme More, Britney Spears
|
|
8
|
Cyclone, Baby Bash
|
|
Source: iTunes
|
|
NEW YORK
TIMES BESTSELLING BOOKS
Week ending October 20, 2007
|
|
Fiction (hardback)
|
|
Rank
|
TITLE
|
Last week
|
Weeks on chart
|
|
1
|
Playing For Pizza by John Grisham
|
2
|
4
|
|
2
|
The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
|
-
|
1
|
|
3
|
World Without End by Ken Follett
|
1
|
2
|
|
4
|
The Choice by Nicholas Sparks
|
3
|
4
|
|
5
|
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
|
4
|
22
|
|
Nonfiction (hardback)
|
|
1
|
I Am America (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert
|
1
|
2
|
|
2
|
Clapton by Eric Clapton
|
2
|
2
|
|
3
|
My Grandfather’s Son by Clarence Thomas
|
3
|
3
|
|
4
|
The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan
|
4
|
5
|
|
5
|
If I Did It by
The Goldman Family
|
-
|
5
|
|
Fiction (paperback)
|
|
1
|
Cross by James Patterson
|
1
|
4
|
|
2
|
H.R.H.
by Danielle Steel
|
3
|
4
|
|
3
|
The Gift by Nora Roberts
|
4
|
4
|
|
4
|
Free Fall by Fern Michaels
|
5
|
4
|
|
5
|
Mine Till Midnight
by Lisa Kleypas
|
2
|
4
|
|
Nonfiction (paperback)
|
|
1
|
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
|
1
|
39
|
|
2
|
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
|
2
|
126
|
|
3
|
90 Minutes in Heaven
by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey
|
3
|
51
|
|
4
|
Three Cups of Tea
by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
|
4
|
38
|
|
5
|
The
Glass
Castle by Jeannette Walls
|
5
|
93
|
|
Source: New York Times
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
USA
TODAY BESTSELLING BOOKS
Week ending October 21, 2007
|
|
Rank
|
TITLE
|
Last week
|
|
1
|
Become a Better You by Joel Osteen
|
-
|
|
2
|
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
|
1
|
|
3
|
I Am America (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert
|
3
|
|
4
|
Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld
|
2
|
|
5
|
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
|
4
|
|
6
|
Clapton by Eric Clapton
|
5
|
|
7
|
The Wisdom of Menopause by
Christiane Northrup
|
-
|
|
8
|
Playing For Pizza by John Grisham
|
6
|
|
9
|
Cross by James Patterson
|
9
|
|
10
|
The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
|
-
|
|
Source:
USA Today
|
