Subjective well-being and self-regulation in risk taking behaviors. The case of scuba-diving

Nowadays, risk-taking behaviors category is a very fast growing domain, yet not well known. Recent studies point out the importance of emotional phenomenons in subjective risk-taking behaviors. According to this axis, on scuba-diving empirical field, we aim to depict the size and the role of psychological process in the realization of the behavior; our research links personality variables and emotionnal ones. The observation of scuba-Divers behavior lead us to construct a fitting of conceptual positions to give an account of that behavior and its subjective function. The self-regulation concept has been dimensioned through several factors and the scales in respect of: Thrill and Adventure Seeking (Zuckerman, 1980), Anhedonia (Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale, 1995), Subjective Well-being (Diener, 1992) and Differential Emotions (Izard, 1972). The population of this study is composed of 74 subjects. They are grouped in 2 categories depending of the risk-taking behavior, injured or injuredless. The datas have been statisticaly treated by classic methods.(chi(2), Student t test) and logistic regression. It appears that Thrill and Adventure Seeking discriminate risk-taking in scuba-diving. The results especially support the weight of emotional variables. It turns out that risk-taking subjects are particularly sensitive to negative emotions. Negative well-being seems to be a central characteristic of the emotional functionning of these subjects. Moreover injured subjects tend to overestimate emotions linked to the behavior. Anhedonia is not a characteristic factor. So it introduces the notion of emotionality and sublines the interactions between risk-taking behavior and emotions through the self-regulation concept.