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Extreme sports participants required for research!

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Rachael Cook 29 Jan 2015
Hi there,

My name is Rachael Cook and I'm a 4th year Psychology student at the University of Strathclyde and I'm currently working on my dissertation project which is looking at the personality characteristics of extreme sports participants. It is a questionnaire based study which is filled out on line. It is completely anonymous and takes no longer than 20 minutes. I'm looking for anyone who regularly participates in extreme sports, non-extreme sports and also individuals' who do not take part in any sports. If you could spare some time to take part it would be much appreciated. This area of research has recently attracted a lot of attention and I hope that my research will come up with some interesting findings that can contribute to the current literature. There is further information within questionnaire about the study and also my contact details for any further questions.
The link below will direct you straight to the questionnaire and after completion it will ask if you are happy to submit your data, if not you can withdraw at this stage without giving any reason.

Thank you,
Rachael Cook

https://hass.eu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_5nGEUoN9ixvPsUd
 Mark Bull 29 Jan 2015
In reply to Rachael Cook:

Done!

Couple of typos you might want to fix:
Picking a small plane
Driving off a high board
abseil 29 Jan 2015
In reply to Rachael Cook:

Done, good luck with your research.
Rachael Cook 29 Jan 2015
In reply to Mark Bull:

Great thanks very much, I appreciate you giving your time.

And thanks for pointing that out

Rachael
 Fredt 29 Jan 2015
In reply to Rachael Cook:

I'm struggling with a couple of the questions:
1. asking how long I have done a sport.
Less than year
1-5 years
5+ years

I have done the sports for 50 years, and you're not really going to capture that, are you?

Also re Experience:
Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced
Professional

Isn't experience more aligned to how long I've been doing it?
I've been climbing for 50 years, I know lots about all aspects of climbing, (Advanced), - but I'm still rubbish at it in terms of ability (Beginner?) What do I put here?



 Milesy 29 Jan 2015
Just a question but I am always uncomfortable with the phrase "extreme sport" - it is always a label applied to those who are ignorant of the skill and education required to be good and safe at winter climbing. If I thought it was extreme I wouldn't be doing it - I am more scared driving up the A9 at night in winter - is that extreme driving? ... just raising the point.
 toad 29 Jan 2015
In reply to Fredt:

Yes, that's a common failing. I'm not an advanced climber, but I've been a bimbly for a good 30 years
 Milesy 29 Jan 2015
In reply to Rachael Cook:

I will also add that I have friends who injure themself playing football and rugby more than I do - granted the price of a mistake in climbing is a lot greater than these sports but overall it sees much less accidents and injury.
 Milesy 29 Jan 2015
In reply to Fredt:

Fredt, yeah this has came up in research posted on here several times over the years.

I know grade IV climbers with decades of mountaineering experience and I know grade VIII climbers who have literaly just came out of dry tooling and hard rock who are athletically and technically very good but have very little hill experience in comparison to the old vet. Who is experienced and who isnt here?
 Mr Lopez 29 Jan 2015
In reply to Milesy:

My pet hate is that they somehow expect people that do a particular type of sport to share traits, like if to show we are abnormal or different, when the truth is we are a mixed bunch of normal people
Rachael Cook 29 Jan 2015
In reply to Fredt:

Hi there,

thank you for taking the time to complete my questionnaire and thank you for your response. I think the number of years definitely reflects the level of experience in the sport in which you participate in, and is something which I may have missed out for individual's who have been taking part in the sport for a number of years. Thank you for raising this point as it something which could be of interest in the study when looking at the results. I will re-consider this question to try and incorporate this into my research.

Thanks,
Rachael
Rachael Cook 29 Jan 2015
In reply to Milesy:
Hi there,

This is actually a point in which I have considered within my research and why this common term has come about. I have researched a lot into many sports and why there has been a classification system that has came about in grouping sports into extreme. There is a lot of differences among these sports, as you have mentioned, the amount of skill, planning and organisation in many of these sports is something which I find of interest within my studies.

Rachael
Post edited at 15:38
altirando 29 Jan 2015
In reply to Rachael Cook:

Find myself echoing many of the comments. I started climbing way back in my mid twenties after being a keen cyclist for years. Does extreme mean very dangerous, or very hard physically? I have done 24 hour cycle races, and solo ascents of alpine peaks. Is either an extreme sport? And as to the psychology, I did not really set out to experience dangerous conditions. I suppose the only common factor is feeling a need to stretch one's self, to discover how far you can go, in every sense. Not looked at your questionnaire yet though.
 wbo 29 Jan 2015
In reply to Rachael Cook: I liked that survey

I think a lot of the comments raised would be answered by the responses to the survey

 Heike 30 Jan 2015
In reply to Rachael Cook:
Hi,
Done it, good luck. I am echoing comments here, but one thing to consider is that the definition of climbing/mountaineering/kayaking/snowboarding as 'extreme' etc is a little outdated, there has been a huge debate out there and they tend to be classed as either lifestyle sports or adventure sports, immediately removing this 'extreme' angle. So, you might want to look up this debate, e.g. authors such as Wheaton, Beal, Thorpe, Horne, etc.

Also, the 1, 2, 5 year band for participants' involvement seems rather random considering that quite often climbing is a lifetime pasttime, so your research categories with regard to experience are getting very skewed here.
Post edited at 00:08
 lowersharpnose 30 Jan 2015
In reply to Rachael Cook:

I can't complete this as I have problems with your use of the word extreme. i climb & mountain bike etc because I enjoy them. Friday night drinking in Mountain Ash for an Englishman would be extreme.
 speedymccreedy 30 Jan 2015
In reply to Rachael Cook:

Done.

I suspect the comments and views garnered on this thread alone will provide additional insight. If you subscribe to the view that "extreme" is purely down to an individuals perception, then many of the responses on this thread are entirely understandable; and agreeable from my point of view. My wife would share an entirely different view!

Good luck with your research.
aultguish 30 Jan 2015
In reply to Rachael Cook:

Done.
I must add tho, you may find some of my answers strange in the last section.
I see piloting a plane (aircraft) as low risk because of training and after many years of flying helicopters, I was never injured or had a crash.
Horses on the other hand, have given me some serious injuries over the years, so therefore, higher risk.
Cheers.
 Doug 30 Jan 2015
In reply to Rachael Cook:

I started to fill in the questionnaire but got stopped at the 'how frequently' question - none of the answers are valid for seasonal activities such as ski mountaineering or ice climbing
 slab_happy 30 Jan 2015
In reply to Rachael Cook:

I'm unclear whether you consider climbing to be an "extreme" sport or not. Based on the fact that I don't think my bouldering and trad has a "high level of inherent risk", I clicked on "no" to whether I participated in any extreme sports, and now it doesn't seem possible to go back and change my answer.
 Al_Mac 30 Jan 2015
I think the general consensus in media and in the participants of these sports is that extreme has an inherent level of risk attached to it. Football has risk of injury but rarely will it be life threatening. Base jumping is at the other end of the scale; you get no minor injuries that the actual risk of a big life changing/ending injury is high. Motocross sits somewhere in the middle with a load of minor injuries the participants would consider inconsequential (but would be considered bad to armchair enthusiasts) but with a low frquency of potentially life changing injuries, albeit a high risk of one should something go wrong.

Winter climbing is far more controlled but if you're at the thick end of it (ie 6/7's and above) the risk of serious injury is still high. Same goes for pushing it hard on high E-grade routes where the risk of hitting the ground is high should you pop off. It's a sliding scale; a punter doing a grade I/II is not extreme even if they are pushing their grade, but a talented climber doing a VII/7 is, purely IMO of course, and based on the risk of serious consequences should something go wrong. It's all fine until control of the situation is lost.
 Doug 30 Jan 2015
In reply to Cloverleaf:

Not so sure for winter climbing, plenty of accidents (including deaths) on easy routes while my impression is that few get killed on hard routes (or at least we don't hear about it & I'm sure we would). Maybe this is a function of numbers - many more climb grade I & II gullies than grade X, but also that many of the high grade mixed routes have better protection than much easier ice/snow routes
 Niall 30 Jan 2015
In reply to Mark Bull:

> Done!

> Couple of typos you might want to fix:
.....
> Driving off a high board

In fairness, that's fairly extreme

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