PERSONALITY, SENSATION SEEKING AND RISK-TAKING AMONG EVEREST CLIMBERS

The purpose of the study was to examine personality, sensation seeking needs and risk taking in the Norwegian Everest expedition of 1985 whe re all 7 members except one reached the top. Norwegian elite climbers, n = 38, spouts students, n = 43, and military recruits, n = 26, were used as reference groups. The results on Cattell II; PF showed the exp edition members to be strong in drive factors (E+, M+, Factor IV), wea k in stop-factors (G-, O-, Q4-, Factor I-) and with good stability (C, Q1+, Q2+). In relation to Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale V (SSS V) the expedition members had very high sensation seeking scores on t hree of four subscales (TAS, ES, BS) and in total score. In general th e expedition had more extreme scores than other climbers on relevant s cales of Cattell 16 PF and SSS V. They were more willing to take risks (Breivik Risk Test 5) than sports students in situations related to e conomical, political/military and physical matters, but not in achieve ment-related intellectual and social matters. It is concluded that the re is a definite high risk athlete profile that may be identified both on move general personality tests, move specific and relevant trait t ests and on risk taking questionnaires.