Abstract
Background: Personality represents a relatively consistent and unique sum of psychological, cognitive and physical characteristics of an individual. Sensation seeking is defined as an action, characterized by the search for different, new, complex and intensive emotions and experiences and preparedness to take physical, social, legal and financial risks in order to achieve these experiences.Objective: We were looking for differences in personality and sensation seeking between high-risk sports athletes and recreational athletes and the correlation between one's purpose to participate in high-risk sports and actual participation.Method: The data was acquired using three different questionnaires: Sensation Seeking Scale (forms SSS - V and SSS - VI) and the Big Five Questionnaire. The sample consisted of 76 high-risk sports athletes and 51 recreational athletes. Data was analyzed using the SPSS statistical program.Results: The results were unexpected because we noticed differences between the two groups in which recreational athletes received higher results, especially in openness. Mostly results from such research show the converse - athletes of high-risk sports are more open. We did not find any difference between the two groups in sensation seeking. We found some correlations between personality traits and factors of Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS - V and SSS - VI). Openness and the Thrill and adventure seeking factor correlated in both versions of SSS.Conclusions: We conclude that high-risk sports athletes differ from recreational athletes, especially in openness. Also, we can confirm that both used versions of SSS are equally effective for analyzing sensation seeking.
Highlights
For a certain number of years there has been an increase in interest in physical activities most often called as high-risk or extreme sports, which are activities which offer unusual and intense sensations
Our study confirms preliminary findings that there are differences in personality and sensation seeking between high risk sports athletes and recreational athletes
The same occurred with agreeableness, where high-risk sports athletes scored lower, people who do high-risk sports are believed to not have so positive attitude to novelties
Summary
For a certain number of years there has been an increase in interest in physical activities most often called as high-risk or extreme sports, which are activities which offer unusual and intense sensations. They are defined as sports, which require extra original skills, courage and the ability to act in situations where a person’s life is endangered (Guszkowska & Bołdak, 2010). Extreme kayaking, diving, ski jumping, sky diving, downhill skiing, mountain biking, snowboarding are just some sports we could define as high-risk (Kajtna, 2013) These sports to some extent converge with sports, which are often called “action sports” (Thorpe & Wheaton, 2013), are not necessarily the same. We can confirm that both used versions of SSS are effective for analyzing sensation seeking
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