The Vienna Risk-Taking Test - Traffic

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 198-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Hergovich ◽  
Martin E. Arendasy ◽  
Markus Sommer ◽  
Bettina Bognar

Abstract. The study reports results regarding the dimensionality and construct validity of a newly developed, objective, video-based personality test that assesses the willingness to take risks in traffic situations. On the basis of the theory of risk homeostasis developed by Wilde, different traffic situations with varying degrees of objective danger were filmed. During the test the respondents are asked to indicate at which point the action that is contingent on the described situation will become too dangerous to carry out. Latencies at the item level were recorded as a measure for the subjectively accepted degree of a person's willingness to take risks in the sense of the risk homeostasis theory by Wilde. In a study on 274 people with different educational levels and gender, the unidimensionality of the test as corresponding to the latency model by Scheiblechner was investigated. The results indicate that the Vienna Risk-Taking Test - Traffic assesses a unidimensional, latent personality trait that can be interpreted as subjectively accepted degree of risk (target risk value).

2005 ◽  
Vol 97 (1) ◽  
pp. 309-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin E. Arendasy ◽  
Andreas Hergovich ◽  
Markus Sommer ◽  
Bettina Bognar

The study at hand reports first results about the dimensionality and construct validity of a newly developed objective, video-based personality test, which assesses the willingness to take risks in traffic situations. On the basis of the theory of risk homeostasis developed by Wilde, different traffic situations with varying amounts of objective danger were filmed. These situations mainly consisted of situations with passing maneuvers and speed choice or traffic situations at intersections. Each of these traffic situations describes an action which should be carried out. The videos of the traffic situations are presented twice. Before the first presentation, a short written explanation of the preceding traffic situation and a situation-contingent reaction is provided. The respondents are allowed to obtain an overview of the given situations during the first presentation of each traffic situation. During the second presentation the respondents are asked to indicate at which point the action that is contingent on the described situation will become too dangerous to carry out. Latencies for items were recorded as a measure for the magnitude of the person's subjectively accepted willingness to take risks in the sense of the risk homeostasis theory by Wilde. In a study with 243 people with different education and sex, the one-dimensionality of the test corresponding to the latency model by Scheiblechner was investigated. Analysis indicated that the new measure assesses a one-dimensional latent personality trait which can be interpreted as subjectively accepted amount of risk (target risk value). First indicators for the construct validity of the test are given by a significant correlation with the construct-related secondary scale, adventurousness of the Eysenck Personality Profiler with, at the same time, nonsignificant correlations to the two secondary scales, extroversion and emotional stability, that are not linked to the construct.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 1998-2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hatice Odacı ◽  
Çiğdem Berber Çelik

The purpose of this research was to determine whether or not traumatic childhood experiences in childhood predict a disposition to risk-taking and aggression among university students. The participants consisted of 851 students: 477 (56.1%) females and 374 (43.9%) males attending various faculties at the Karadeniz Technical University in Turkey. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Adolescent Risk-Taking Scale, Aggression Questionnaire, and Personal Information Form were used for data collection. The analysis results revealed a positive correlation between traumatic experiences (physical, sexual, emotional maltreatment, and emotional neglect) and risk-taking and aggression. Physical and sexual abuse and gender are significant predictors of risk-taking. Physical abuse and gender are some of the predictors of aggression. Another finding from the study is that physical and emotional abuse and emotional neglect vary by gender. This study concludes that exposure to traumatic experiences in childhood prepares the foundation for negative behaviors in adulthood.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-50
Author(s):  
Heiko Motschenbacher ◽  
Eka Roivainen

There have been linguistic studies on the gendering mechanisms of adjectives and psychological studies on the relationship between personality traits and gender, but the two fields have never entered into a dialogue on these issues. This article seeks to address this gap by presenting an interdisciplinary study that explores the gendering mechanisms associated with personality traits and personality trait-denoting adjectives. The findings of earlier work in this area and basic gendering mechanisms relevant to adjectives and personality traits are outlined. This is followed by a linguistic and a psychological analysis of the usage patterns of a set of personality trait adjectives. The linguistic section draws on corpus linguistics to explore the distribution of these adjectives with female, male and gender-neutral personal nouns in the Corpus of Contemporary American English. The psychological analysis relates the usage frequencies of personality trait adjectives with the nouns man, woman and person in the Google Books corpus to desirability ratings of the adjectives.


2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Brown ◽  
Dawn Penney

This article draws on material associated with a solo sailing circumnavigation, undertaken by 16 year old Jessica Watson in 2009–2010, to discuss how her voyage provided a focal point for debates relating to voluntary risk-taking conducted within the sport and leisure context. Specifically, we illustrate how public and media commentaries on her voyage reflect discourses of risk being infused and conflated with discourses of responsibility, youth and gender. Our analysis brings to the fore the contested, moral and political nature of risk discourses in contemporary western society. Public reaction to Watson’s voyage indicates that descriptions of western society as risk-averse fail to capture the situated and dynamic perceptions of risk.


2015 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oona Levasseur ◽  
Mark R. McDermott ◽  
Kathryn D. Lafreniere

For each of eight literature-identified conceptual dimensions of mortality awareness, questionnaire items were generated, producing 89 in all. A total of 359 participants responded to these items and to questionnaires measuring health attitudes, risk taking, rebelliousness, and demographic variables. Multivariate correlational analyses investigated the underlying structure of the item pool and the construct validity as well as the reliability of the emergent empirically derived subscales. Five components, rather than eight, were identified. Given the item content of each, the associated mortality awareness subscales were labeled as legacy, fearfulness, acceptance, disempowerment, and disengagement. Each attained an acceptable level of internal reliability. Relationships with other variables supported the construct validity of these empirically derived subscales and more generally of this five-factor model. In conclusion, this new multidimensional measure and model of mortality awareness extends our understanding of this important aspect of human existence and supports a more integrative and optimistic approach to mortality awareness than previously available.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manal Alohali ◽  
Nathan Clarke ◽  
Fudong Li ◽  
Steven Furnell

Purpose The end-user has frequently been identified as the weakest link; however, motivated by the fact that different users react differently to the same stimuli, identifying the reasons behind variations in security behavior and why certain users could be “at risk” more than others is a step toward protecting and defending users against security attacks. This paper aims to explore the effect of personality trait variations (through the Big Five Inventory [BFI]) on users’ risk level of their intended security behaviors. In addition, age, gender, service usage and information technology (IT) proficiency are analyzed to identify what role and impact they have on behavior. Design/methodology/approach The authors developed a quantitative-oriented survey that was implemented online. The bi-variate Pearson two-tailed correlation was used to analyze survey responses. Findings The results obtained by analyzing 538 survey responses suggest that personality traits do play a significant role in affecting users’ security behavior risk levels. Furthermore, the results suggest that BFI score of a trait has a significant effect as users’ online personality is linked to their offline personality, especially in the conscientiousness personality trait. Additionally, this effect was stronger when personality was correlated with the factors of IT proficiency, gender, age and online activity. Originality/value The contributions of this paper are two-fold. First, with the aid of a large population sample, end-users’ security practice is assessed from multiple domains, and relationships were found between end-users’ risk-taking behavior and nine user-centric factors. Second, based upon these findings, the predictive ability for these user-centric factors were evaluated to determine the level of risk a user is subject to from an individual behavior perspective. Of 28 behaviors, 11 were found to have a 60 per cent or greater predictive ability, with the highest classification of 92 per cent for several behaviors. This provides a basis for organizations to use behavioral intent alongside personality traits and demographics to understand and, therefore, manage the human aspects of risk.


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