Gunnar Breivik

Sensation seeking as a predictor of positive and negative risk behaviour among adolescents

The present paper examines the relationship between sensation seeking and risk-taking behaviour among adolescents. Risk behaviour is defined as positive risk behaviour (activities like climbing, kayaking, rafting etc.) and negative risk behaviour (crime and socially unacceptable activities like shoplifting, drug use etc.) Perceived challenges and influences from school, parents, friends and social background are examined as contributing factors. Three hundred and sixty adolescents between 12 and 16 years of age from a school in Trondheim, Norway, answered the tests. The test consisted of My Opinion II, a Swedish version of the sensation seeking scale, which measures sensation seeking among adolescents around the age of 14. Three other questionnaires developed especially for this study were also used; one measuring risk behaviour, one measuring challenges from school, parents and friends, and one measuring social background. The results indicate a strong relationship between sensation seeking and both types of risk behaviour. Negative risk behaviour correlates negatively with challenges from both school and parents, and a similar relationship exists between negative risk behaviour and social background. It seems that few challenges and a poor social background could result in more negative risk behaviour.

Skillful Coping in Everyday Life and in Sport: A Critical Examination of the Views of Heidegger and Dreyfus

Recent discussion in both philosophy of mind and phenomenology has focused on skilled motor behavior. The discussion has already produced a large body of literature (1;4;7;16;22;24;26). In philosophy of sport various authors have discussed skilled movements but mostly in relation to epistemological concerns about knowing in sport (15;17;18;27;29;32). The aforementioned recent discussion, however, has mainly been neglected among philosophers of sport, with the exception of Moe (20;21). Philosophers in the phenomenological tradition and in the analytic tradition use findings from empirical studies as a basis for their arguments (see for instance 7;16;22). This link to empirical work is important. In sport sciences there is a considerable amount of interesting empirical work on motor learning and control (see for example 30). It is time for philosophers of sport to also begin a more serious discussion of skilled motor behavior. This is particularly appropriate because the general discussion of motor behavior in philosophy of mind and in phenomenology relies heavily on examples from sport. The discussion between Searle (26) and Dreyfus (4) is a case in point. Both in general philosophy of mind and in empirical work on motor learning and control, the information processing paradigm is broadly accepted. According to this paradigm, skillful behavior is based on discrete mental representations that are processed according to certain rules. This is done in a conscious manner at lower skill levels and then in increasingly unconscious ways at higher skill levels (25). Likewise, the phenomenological skill acquisition paradigm advocated by Dreyfus (5;6) contends that at higher levels of skilled behavior we use “absorbed coping” in our dealings with the world. Absorbed coping is not based on discrete representations and rule-following but on the direct interaction of our bodies with the physical environment. This interaction has a nonconscious zombie-like character. Dreyfus maintains,

Trends in adventure sports in a post-modern society

The essay delineates main trends in the development of adventure sports and looks into possible future scenarios. Since the 1970s there has been an increase in adventure sports of various kinds. The concept ‘adventure sport’ is used in a wide sense, covering sports that are labelled ‘alternative’, ‘extreme’, ‘X’, ‘gravity’, ‘lifestyle’ and ‘action sports’. The rise of adventure sport must be seen both on the background of developments inside sports itself and the environing society. Adventure sports have things to offer that are difficult to find in other sports, like strong sensations and risk. They represent an opposition and protest against certain aspects of modern societies, but can also be said to express key ideas in modern and post-modern society such as individualism, technology, self-realization and transcendence. The essay discusses various theories and recent empirical findings that may explain and predict developments of adventure sports in the future.

Doping Games A Game Theoretical Exploration of Doping

This article will discuss the problem of doping from a game theoretical point of view. The first part of the of the article discusses typical 2-person games. The second part goes on to explore the most relevant n-person situations using graph illustrations. The game theoretical aspects are then related to some relevant sociological explanations of doping.

Personality, psychological states and heart rate in novice and expert parachutists

Abstract Heart rates and psychological states were measured in 14 novice and 21 expert parachute jumpers while making a static line jump from an airplane. The measures were compared with data from a jump made from a model on the ground and with baseline data collected weeks later at a different location. Personality traits were measured at baseline day by Eysencks Personality Questionnaire, Zuckermans Sensation Seeking Scale V and Spielbergers STAI trait. Several tests of psychological state were given. Expert parachutists scored significantly higher than novices on Psychoticism and Experience seeking. Thrill and Adventure seeking correlated negatively and Trait anxiety positively with several measures of state anxiety. The only trait variable that correlated with heart rate was Psychoticism which had a negative correlation with two measures of increase in heart rate before making the jump. Number of jumps was the only good predictor of heart rate in expert jumpers at exit from the plane. Eysencks arousal theory was not corroborated. Extraversion was unrelated to psychological state and heart rate. An exception was that among expert jumpers heart rate at exit from plane correlated negatively with extraversion.

Zombie-Like or Superconscious? A Phenomenological and Conceptual Analysis of Consciousness in Elite Sport

According to a view defended by Hubert Dreyfus and others, elite athletes are totally absorbed while they are performing, and they act non-deliberately without any representational or conceptual thinking. By using both conceptual clarification and phenomenological description the article criticizes this view and maintains that various forms of conscious thinking and acting plays an important role before, during and after competitive events. The article describes in phenomenological detail how elite athletes use consciousness in their actions in sport; as planning, attention, thinking, decision, and monitoring of performance. Elite athletes do not act as zombies. It is concluded that qualia and phenomenal consciousness are important phenomena in elite sport.

Attitudes towards use of performance-enhancing substances and body modification techniques. A comparison between elite athletes and the general population

Medical and technological developments open up new possibilities for modifying the body and enhancing performance in various areas of life. This study compares attitudes among Norwegian elite athletes (n = 234) with attitudes in the general population (n = 428). Whereas vitamins, nutritional supplements and hypoxic rooms were accepted by more than 65% of both athletes and population the rejection of EPO, anabolic steroids and amphetamines were similarly clear in both groups. The athletes were in general more reluctant to use performance enhancement means and body modification techniques than the general population. A significantly higher percentage of the population than the athletes accepted a) means to avoid memory failure in old age (61.6 versus 43.2, sig. 0.000), b) means to avoid decrease in physical fitness among old people (48.6 versus 34.7, sig. 0.005), c) liposuction (30.1 versus 12.4, sig. 0.000), d) surgery for obesity (15.3 versus 9.4, sig. 0.035), e) silicon implants (9.9 versus 5.1, sig. 0.001). The athletes were significantly more satisfied with their bodies than the population (sig. 0.000). Males were more positive about the use of performance enhancement means, whereas females were more positive about body modification techniques. Males were significantly more positive about the use of a) means that increase strength and endurance (sig. 0.002, and b) means that increase sexual performance (sig 0.000). Females were significantly more positive than males about the use of liposuction (sig. 0.000), plastic surgery on the face (sig. 0.013), surgery to combat obesity (sig. 0.000) and silicon implants (sig. 0.000).

Bodily movement – The fundamental dimensions

Bodily movement has become an interesting topic in recent philosophy, both in analytic and phenomenological versions. Philosophy from Descartes to Kant defined the human being as a mental subject in a material body. This mechanistic attitude toward the body still lingers on in many studies of motor learning and control. The article shows how alternative philosophical views can give a better understanding of bodily movement. The article starts with Heideggers contribution to overcoming the subject-object dichotomy and his new understanding of the primacy of the practical involvement with the surrounding world. Heidegger, however, in many ways neglected the role of the human body. Merleau-Ponty took a huge step forward when he focused on the bodily intentionality of our interaction with the world. The next step was taken by Samuel Todes who presented a better understanding of how we are bodily oriented in space. After having seen how the body is oriented outward towards the environment it is proper that the final part of this article goes inward toward the role of bodily awareness and the role of proprioception in human movement. The goal of the presentation is to contribute to a better understanding of what goes on in sport. The article therefore uses examples from sport, especially football, to show the relevance of the new insights for sport studies.

Being-in-the-Void: A Heideggerian Analysis of Skydiving

Philosophy of sport as a field of study brings philosophy and sport together. This can be done in various ways. What I do in this article may seem like a daring project. I let Heidegger, one of the great thinkers of the 20th century, throw light on one specific sport activity—skydiving 1 . My hope is that some of this light reflects back and illuminates certain aspects of Heidegger’s views. This is not only a daring but also an ambitious project and it may fail. In that respect it resides within the spirit of both Heidegger and skydiving, where daring and failing have not been uncommon 2 . My focus will be on Heidegger’s early philosophy, primar ily Being and Time (12;13;14;15). In his early works Heidegger did not give many examples of phenomenological analysis. When he did, he typically described daily life in a living room, an office, or a workshop. We know that Heidegger was active in sport when he was young and that he was interested in sport all his life 3 . In his writings, however, there is almost nothing about sport. This does not mean that his early philosophy is irrelevant for an understanding of human involvement in sport. Quite the contrary. In this article I will explore a few basic ideas which are relevant.

Sporting knowledge and the problem of knowing how

In the Concept of Mind from 1949 Gilbert Ryle (1949/1963) distinguished between knowing how and knowing that. What was Ryle’s basic idea and how is the discussion going on in philosophy today? How can sport philosophy use the idea of knowing how? My goal in this paper is first to bring Ryle and the post-Rylean discussion to light and then show how phenomenology can give some input to the discussion. The article focuses especially on the two main interpretations of knowing how, intellectualism and anti-intellectualism. In the second part of the article I discuss how views from phenomenology and philosophy of mind can enrich and widen our understanding of what knowing how means in relation to sport practices. It is argued that knowing how is not limited to athletic abilities but includes knowledge of how the environing world operates in relation to athletic action.