Introduction The emotional response to risk Psychoanalytic theory Evolutionary perspectives ... David J. Llewellyn Welcome to Risktaking.co.uk - a website which provides an introduction to the psychology of risk taking for general readers, and specialised support for psychologists. Introduction - Risk taking behaviours such as rock climbing, gambling and drug taking represent one of the most perplexing problems in the field of psychology. The need for safety is fundamental, are people who take huge risks therefore illogical or mentally ill? Recent research findings shed an altogether different perspective on these behaviours however, and it seems that normal people are motivated to take risks as a result of their psychological makeup and the nature of the situation they find themselves in. Psychological profiles The degree to which all risk taking behaviours can be categorised by a universal "risk taking personality" remains controversial. Many contemporary researchers now adopt more sophisticated multidimensional models of risk taking personality which stress both the similarities and differences across risk taking domains. | |
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