Аннотация:
Introduction. The importance of the investigation is based on growth among the young generation of interest towards recreational and sport-related risk-taking behaviors. Dramatic outcomes of such behavior calls for thorough analysis of its nature and dynamics in order to predict and prevent the manifestations having the most dangerous consequences.
Research goal: research of ethological and psycho-dynamical causes of risk-taking behavior.
Methods. A group of 20 young people involved in rope jumping and a group of 5 people involved in train surfing have been examined. The control group was formed out of students of higher education institutions and students of driving courses and included 22 people. For personality evaluation Character test by K. Leongard, Life Style Index (LSI), Symptom Checklist-90 Revised Questionnaire (SCL-90-R), and Domain-Specific-Risk-Taking (DOSPERT) Scale have been used.
Results. The risk-taking behavior is gender-specific attribute of male part of the population. It has its peak during adolescent stage of their life and it is developed in connection with necessity to solve tasks of reproduction and evolution. The risk-taking behavior is primarily targeted to attract the women’s attention. People prone to risk are characterized by more intensive use of practically all defense mechanisms. Among those mechanisms the most important for realization of risky actions are displacement, repression and regression. Expression thereof is caused by frustration, during certain life stages, of basic needs for freedom and autonomy, achievement and effectiveness. The main reason these basic needs are frustrated is overprotection from parents and state targeted to provide the maximum physical and psychological safety for the child. In these circumstances the risk-taking behavior becomes an attempt to realize all the suppressed needs simultaneously. Saving a child from his commission of motor, sensory and cognitive errors at the early stages of life disrupts the development of age-appropriate physical and psychological skills. In the future, this may lead to the fact that the implementation of any action will be accompanied by motor awkwardness and inadequate prediction of the consequences, and the motivation of acts is dictated by selfish motives and competition, rather than empathy, reciprocal altruism and a desire for cooperation.
Conclusion. Constant high need in independence and personal significance during the most active period of fertile years together with peculiarity of organization of person’s defence system formed by that time increase the possibility of young person committing "heroic" actions of self-destructive nature. These actions do not necessarily assume abidance moral and social acceptability thereof, which makes risk-takers young people more likely to be recruited into destructive communities. There is a necessity in development of new principles of formulation of educational programs in schools and kindergartens that pay respect to evolutional and psycho-dynamic needs of children.
Ключевые слова:
life problems, basic needs, defense mechanisms, adolescence, recreational risk, risk-taking behavior, natural selection, extreme entertainment.