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I
have been a diver almost as long as I have been a
psychologist. I began training with the British Sub
Aqua Club in 1975, two years after I started on an
undergraduate psychology course. At one point, the
two even came together when I studied the effects of
stress, along with a colleague, Arthur Grierson, who
was an active sky diver. Sadly, Arthur died in a sky
diving accident and I moved on to other areas of
psychology. However, the psychology of scuba diving
has always interested me and this page reflects that
interest. These days, I am a diving instructor with
PADI, in my spare time, and my knowledge of
psychology has undoubtedly made me a better
instructor. I hope that this page teaches you a few
interesting things about the psychology that
underlies scuba diving and maybe even leads to
changes that improve your diving enjoyment and
safety.
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Are you interested in
becoming a scuba diver, or are you one
already? If so, there is a good chance that
you will score higher than average on a type
of personality that is called 'Sensation
Seeking'. Sensation Seeking refers to a
preference for a particular level of sensory
stimulation. People who score highly on
scales of Sensation Seeking prefer higher
levels of stimulation. They are people who
are often looking for new and exciting
things to do.
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If you want
to find out where you are on the Sensation Seeking
continuum, try the following quiz. Answer 'True' or
'False' to each of the following items:
Scoring:
Give yourself 1 point for answering 'True' to
items 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 13. Also give
yourself 1 point for answering 'False' to items
3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 14. Add up your points and
compare yourself to the following norms: 11 -
14, High Sensation Seeker; 6 - 10, Moderate
Sensation Seeker; 1 - 5, Low Sensation Seeker.
This is an
adapted and shortened form of Zuckerman's (1979)
Sensation Seeking Scale. It gives a rough measure
only.
Boredom is
the main enemy of sensation seekers, who like
adventure and challenges such as those you get from
scuba diving. They are generally more impulsive,
uninhibited, extraverted and non-conformist than low
sensation seekers. High sensation seekers also have
the following characteristics, according to
Zuckerman:
1. They are
more willing to engage in activities that involve a
risk. So, as well as scuba diving, they are also
more likely to go mountain climbing, sky diving and
surfing. They are more likely to ride motor cycles
and drive their cars faster than others. They are
also more likely to experiment with recreational
drugs such as marijuana.
2. They are
more willing to volunteer for unusual experiments or
activities that they may know little about. So they
volunteer more often to participate in meditation,
studies of hypnosis and so on.
3. They
engage in a wider range of sexual activities with a
greater variety of partners. They also report more
sexual experimentation than others.
4. They show
other preferences that promote high levels of
stimulation. For example, they tend to like
extensive travel, gambling, spicy foods, provocative
art, wild parties and unusual friends.
According to
Lesnik-Oberstein and Cohen (1984), compatibility in
sensation seeking may influence the progress of
romantic relationships. Studies show that partners
in intimate relationships tend to be fairly similar
in terms of sensation seeking. According to
Zuckerman, this similarity occurs because
incompatibility in sensation seeking places strain
on intimate relationships. He theorises that persons
very high and very low in sensation seeking may have
difficulty understanding and relating to each other,
and also in finding mutually enjoyable activities.
Nevo and
Breitstein (1999) surveyed many studies of the
characteristics of divers and came up with the
following robust features that emerged from many
individual studies:
- Divers
tend to gamble, take risks and seek adventure.
- Divers are
more masculine and more aggressive than non
divers. (If you are interested in completing a
questionnaire that looks at how masculine and
feminine you are,
click here.)
- Divers
suffer less anxiety than non divers.
- The
general health of divers is better than non
divers.
On the other
hand, they also found some health problems that were
associated with professional divers (in other
words, divers who dive for a living):
- Hearing
impairments.
- Muscular
and joint health problems.
- Possible
impairment of neuropsychological functioning. This
one is less certain, but there may be a slow
accumulation of small effects over many years.
On the other
hand, according to a study in the December 12 issue
of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American
Academy of Neurology, scuba diving has no long-term
effects on the brain. The study compared 24
professional German Navy divers and 24 German Navy
employees who do not dive. A battery of exams
testing their brain functions showed no difference
between the two groups. More information on the
study can be found at the Rodale scuba web site, at:
http://www.scubadiving.com/feature/news/braininjury.shtml
Good Diver - Bad Diver
Following on from this quick look at
professional divers, Baddeley et al (1978)
surveyed commercial divers working on the
North Sea oil rigs. They used interviews and
questionnaires to find out what the
commercial divers themselves thought were
the characteristics of the good commercial
diver and the bad commercial diver.
Here are their findings, ordered by the
number of times they were mentioned:
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Good Diver |
Bad Diver |
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Trustworthy
and precise |
Doesn't ask
questions |
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Emotionally
balanced |
Gives up
easily |
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Has common
sense |
'Superhead'
(I don't know what this means) |
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Good
professional knowledge |
Tense and
nervous |
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Asks when he
doesn't know |
'Know all' |
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Honest |
Dishonest |
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Energetic |
Negligent |
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Experienced |
'Never
afraid' |
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Fears when
necessary |
Complains |
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Has a sense
of humour |
Untidy |
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Considerate
of others |
Unsociable |
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Jack-of-all-trades |
Never
pleased with new equipment |
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Doesn't
complain |
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Nevo and
Breitstein (1999) have pointed out that problems
sometimes occur because of an incompatibility
between some of the tasks needed for safe diving and
the personality of the kind of person attracted to
the sport. Many divers are attracted to the sport
because of the challenges and a liking for proximity
to danger. Yet safe diving can require meticulous
attention to details such as checking the condition
of one's gear or dive tables, that this type of
diver is less likely to do.
Most divers
will experience enough stress at some time in their
diving lives to feel anxiety before, during or after
a dive. For some, this will reach an intensity that
makes normal functioning difficult or impossible and
this is the state we call panic. According to some
diving psychologists, such as Bachrach and Egstrom
(1987), panic is the leading cause of diving
fatalities. Panic can result from a gradual
accumulation of anxiety evoking events (cold,
tiredness, unfamiliarity with equipment etc.), or
from a single event that the diver feels unable to
handle (regulator free flow, loss of a mask etc.).
Edmonds (1986) pointed out that fear alone, without
the addition of any other stress, can cause death.
Panic is more likely to happen when diving at a new
site or in more extreme conditions than the diver is
used to.
For some
people, a gradual accumulation of stressful life
events can take them closer to their panic
threshold. If you are interested in a seeing a list
of typical life events, with an estimate of their
typical stress value,
click here.
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The main
signs and symptoms of panic are:
- Respiratory changes: Changes in the breathing rate
and pattern. In a panic attack, shortness of
breath is common and the diver may feel that they
cannot get enough air into their lungs.
- Cardiovascular changes: Changes can include
tachycardia (rapid heart rate) and arrhythmias
(irregular heart beat). The diver may experience
heart 'palpitations', a feeling of heaviness or
chest pain.
- Gastrointestinal changes: The GI system may become
more active, with symptoms ranging from
'butterflies in the stomach' to nausea, vomiting
and diarrhoea.
- Genitourinary changes: Changes in the GU system
include increased urination or the sensation of
needing to urinate and tingling sensations.
- Musculoskeletal changes: Muscular tension,
headache and tremor are common symptoms.
- Vocalisation changes: Tremor in the voice, a
high-pitched voice or 'frozen' vocalisations are
the main signs here.
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Panic can
lead to death in several ways. If the diver is
breathing rapidly and shallowly, insufficient oxygen
reaches the lungs, causing hypoxia and the build up
of excess CO2. The diver thus tries to breathe even
faster and may expel the regulator because they feel
it is preventing them from getting enough air. Some
divers in this situation bolt for the surface and
expose themselves to the risks of decompression
sickness. Hypoxia can also lead to loss of
consciousness. The increase in heart rate and
sympathetic nervous system activity can cause a
heart attack in someone with a weak heart.
Panic also
prevents the diver from thinking in a cool, rational
way. If the situation calls for rational thought, if
the diver is tangled in a line or has an equipment
malfunction for example, panic can prevent the kind
of reasoning that is needed to solve the problem and
will often make it worse.
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Divers can
prevent panic in a number of ways:
- Improving physical fitness. Divers who are fit
have more resources that they can use to combat
cold, fatigue etc.
- Improving knowledge of diving. Knowing the
real risks of diving prevents unrealistic fears
from taking over. For example, many novice or
trainee divers ask me if we are likely to
encounter sharks on a dive and how dangerous they
are. It usually helps them to know that the
chances of being bitten by a shark are less than
the chances of being stung to death by bees. If
divers were worried by truly risky situations,
they would be far more likely to panic when they
get behind the wheel of a car. Driving a car is
far more likely to lead to danger than a shark
encounter.
- Practising emergency responses. One of the
most useful things that divers can do to prevent
panic is to practice emergency response
techniques, such as buddy breathing ascents, until
they become automatic. For one thing it saves
valuable time because in a real emergency you
don't have to spend as much time thinking of every
step. For another thing, the confidence of knowing
you can handle emergencies makes panic a less
likely response.
- Knowing
your limits. When you know what kind of dives
you are trained and competent to carry out, you
are less likely to get into emergency situations.
- Improving psychological fitness. Spigolon and
Dell'oro (1985) have proposed that autogenic
training can be useful to divers. This involves
learning techniques that break the negative circle
that goes from difficult situation to anxiety to
panic. A diver who, when confronted by
difficulties, can direct himself to "Relax -
Breathe easily - Think" will be in a better frame
of mind to help himself and/or others.
A simple way of doing this is to include
deliberate pauses at important points in a dive.
This will improve your diving and reduce stress.
At each major transition point - before donning
gear or entering the water; at the surface and
before descending; when arriving at the bottom and
before ascending; at the safety stop; and finally
when arriving on the surface or before leaving the
water:
- Pause.
- Check yourself, your gear, your buddy and the
environment.
- Take time to allow your body and mind to adjust
to where you are and what you are doing.
- Compare instruments and communicate with your
buddy as needed.
- Use
appropriate equipment. If you know that you
will be diving under potentially difficult
conditions, it can be very reassuring to know that
you have the appropriate equipment. For example,
if you will be drift diving in choppy conditions
so that the boat captain may find it difficult to
locate you after the dive, it can be reassuring to
carry a signalling device, such as a tall surface
marker buoy, so that you are visible even from a
long way away.
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© 2000 to
2003 Peter Michael Forster
(Dr) Peter M.
Forster
PADI # 605811
http://www.blue-oceans.com/scuba/
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