Personality characteristics of US Navy divers*

Abstract

Several personality measures, assessing sensation‐seeking, socialization, locus of control, and trait anxiety, were administered to a representative sample of US Navy divers and the results compared to data obtained from published norms. The divers had significantly lower Internality‐Externality scores, were more poorly socialized, and had lower levels of trait anxiety than the norm groups. Findings for the five subscales of the sensation‐seeking measure showed that, compared to the norm group, divers scored significantly higher on the Thrill and Adventure Seeking subscale and significantly lower on the Experience Seeking and Disinhibition subscales. These findings correspond well to constructs of diver personality derived from earlier research. While the data indicate that these measures may be useful in screening and selecting personnel for hazardous occupations, future research should determine the reliability of these differences using appropriate comparison groups (e.g. non‐diving Navy personnel). Inasmuch as moderate correlations were found among the five subscales of the sensation‐seeking measure, the statistical independence of these subscales should be revalidated prior to using these subscales for screening and selection purposes.