PERSONALITY-PATTERNS OF ANXIETY DURING OCCUPATIONAL DEEP DIVES WITH LONG-TERM CONFINEMENT IN HYPERBARIC CHAMBER

Extreme environments are generally thought to be stressful situations. Occupational deep diving inflicts periods of long-term confinement in hyperbaric chambers and high-pressure exposure on divers. Such extrem e environmental conditions have been demonstrated to produce acute res ponses of anxiety in individual divers. Although these studies have me ntioned personality as a factor explaining why some divers reported an increase in ratings of anxiety, the role of personality traits still remains unclear. The present study examines the possible role of perso nality traits in the development of diving anxiety. Results confirm th at diving anxiety remains at the individual level and relatively trans ient and suggest that personality factors, such as low self-control an d emotional instability, that reflect an incapacity to control and exp ress tension in an appropriate manner would play a crucial role in the occurrence of diving anxiety. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.