Aspect psychologique et sociologique de l'alpinisme

Abstract

La psychologie de l'alpinisme n'a pas encore atteint un développement important. En dehors des notions se rapportant aux manifestations pathologiques (troubles sensoriels et moteurs, psychophysiologiques et comportementaux) dus à l'hypoxie, les quelques travaux relatifs portent surtout sur l'étude de la personnalité. Une approache nouvelle est proposée s'appuyant essentiellement sur la façon de traiter l'information. Des applications sont envisagées quant aux possibilités de faire face au stress et en matière de survie. Les problèmes de groupe, importants lors des expéditions, sont évoqués. Many medical studies have been conducted in the field of mountaineering but few seem to have been carried out in the field of psychology. What seems to be well known are mostly behavioral disorders induced by altitude: sensory, motor, psychophysiological and mental disorders. Reviewing the past studies and analyzing a prospective one, the psychological approach can be conducted at the individual and the group level. Individual 1) Personality and personal styles: the approach of the personality is one of the fundamental areas of psychology and there are many well-known methods to study it. Two sports-specific french tests can be quoted (Thill's and Missoum's tests). However, we often feel that, in sports, a more beneficial approach would be to assess the way in which subjects answer the request, i.e. in fact, information processing. The point is to study personal « styles , the most important being dependance-independance field, level of adaptation, reflection-impulsiveness, style of categorization, decision-making behavior, with, in addition, assessment of anxiety and aggresiveness. Coupled with psychophysiological and biological measurements, especially endocrinian data (stress markers for example) seem to be useful. 2) Motivation: Rejecting the psychodynamic approach, most sports psychologists endorsed the theory of attribution to discuss motivation. It seems possible to use this model for mountain climbers, although the individual's life experience in this particular sport is very typical and univocal. Group During high mountain expeditions, causes of problems occurring in groups are very much alike those known in other exceptional situations. The same is true for manifestations of « inadaptationsuch as excitation on depression, irritability, difficult relationship with others, formation of sub-groups, opposition to authority, etc. Various methods and techniques, especially sociometric, developed for institutionalized expeditions (polar especially) can be used with benefit. It seems that the psychological approach in the field of mountaineering has been so far only anecdotic. However, methods of mental preparation already successfully tested in sports at high level seem worth being applied to mountaineering.