Prosocial and antisocial aspects of personality in women: a replication study

Several studies seem to favour the existence of a continuum between prosoci ality and antisociality. The aim of the present study was to replicate the functions found in men in a sample of women. Physical-risk taking activitie s can be classified along a continuum ranging from prosociality to antisoci ality, the risky sports being in an intermediate point of that hypothetical dimension. The sample consisted of 43 antisocial risk takers incarcerated for having committed armed robbery, 52 risk-taker sportswomen, 74 prosocial risk takers, and 58 women not engaged in any risky activity. Subjects were administered the Sensation Seeking scale, the Eysenck Personality Question naire, the Impulsiveness scale of the Impulsiveness-Venturesomeness-Empathy Questionnaire, the Socialization scale of the California Psychological Inv entory, and the Susceptibility to Punishment and Reward scales. Discriminan t analysis identified in females the same three different profiles of physi cal risk-taking personality found in males: (1) the Impulsive Unsocialized Sensation Seeker; (2) the Venturesomeness; and (3) the Seeker of Experience s by a nonconforming life style. Moreover, the results seem to support the validity and generalizability across gender of the model being considered. The four personality variables that best discriminate among the risk-taking types are: Socialization, Thrill and Adventure Seeking, Experience Seeking , and Neuroticism. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.