Individual differences in diving

Abstract

Diving is an activity that requires the divers to undergo adaptive proceses to survive and to achieve an efficient performance in the underwater environment. With the aim of verifying the role of individual differences in the adaptation to an extreme environment, psychological data from a sample ( N = 649) of military personnel participating in diving courses were analyzed, checking the differences in their capacity to adapt to the underwater demands and between divers with different levels of performance. The results indicate the existence of psychological variables that differentiate those who pass or fail the diving training ( d = .34) and between groups of divers who obtain different levels of performance ( d = .56) in underwater tasks. These data support the hypothesis that dispositional traits can be predictors of underwater behavior and performance, and that they are useful for the identification of suitable personnel for the practice of professional diving.