GAR333

Hi Orange I meant 'original' in the context of the topic areas that I have seen my peers pick over the last 3 years at Uni. During my literature search I have found about 20 published papers so far, that specifically look at extreme sports in one form or another, but these seem to concentrate on personality measures, and don't look at self efficacy, self esteem etc. I appreciate that it probably gets tedious replying to these surveys over and over again, so thanks to the 64 people who have spent time responding. Gareth

Hi Jimmy It is thought provoking, and just to clarify I don't for one moment think skydivers have a death wish or have some form of psychosis. In fact I think participation in extreme sports have benefits. Whilst I can only claim to have ever done 1 tandem jump, 3 bungees and done some paragliding, which I will hopefully add to in the future, I feel as if I have got a lot out of these experiences. Thanks for your response, if I had the time and the resources I would have liked to have got out there and done interviews at drop zones to get a real feel for things rather than just use an online questionnaire. I must admit I wasn't expecting people to take the time respond to my post. Cheers Gareth

Hi kschilk I had to use a generic term as I'm asking the same questions of mountain/rock climbers, paragliders, hang gliders. I guess some people will think they aren't extreme sports when compared to skydiving. Unfortunately I have to jump through hoops for my dissertation, and the phrase "extreme sport" has been operationalised as "any sport where one has to accept a possibility of severe injury or death as an inherent part of the activity", and I guess that applies to skydiving and the other sports I have mentioned.

Thanks for the reply, I guess that's what I am trying to find out about. There was a time when physical risk taking was considered as indicative of psychosis; psychoanalytical theory (Freud et al) claimed it was indicative of a death wish. There's quite a bit of research out there, but it's generally related to personality measures. There's very little research on levels of psychological well-being in participants of skydiving or any other extreme sport. I thought it would be an interesting area to explore for my dissertation, a bit original and better than the same old studies that my peers seem to pick each and every year.

I'm currently studying Psychological well-being in partipants of extreme sports as part of my thesis/dissertation in psychology. If I come accross any research I will let you know. So far the only the thing I have found relates to heart rates in novice and expert parachutists, from a study done in 1997. The paper is: Breivik, G., Roth, W. T., & Jorgensen, P. E. (1998). Personality, psychological states and heart rate in novice and expert parachutists. Personality and Individual Differences , 25, 365-380. If anyone has the time to complete a questionnaire as part of my study, I have posted a message on this board with a link to an online questionnaire, see "Psychological well-being and extreme sports" in this forum. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3058230;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread Cheers.

Hey I'm studying psychological well-being in participants of extreme sports for my dissertation/thesis in psychology. So if anyone can spare 15 minutes to complete an online questionnaire that would be great. As a thank-you, all those who complete a questionnaire have the chance to be entered into a draw to win an Amazon gift voucher. To read a bit more about this, or to complete the questionnaire click on the link below. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Q1qsPgvrov_2fZZVtRVzN2EQ_3d_3d Cheers! Gareth