Episode 35: The Psychology of Extreme Sports

Michael — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 11:48:40 +0000

Time for a little fun. I know you’ve asked yourself this question: why do people engage in those dangerous extreme sports like hang gliding, bungee jumping and rock climbing? Would you believe it might have something to do with neurotransmitters and something called Monoamine Oxidase? In this video episode we learn about Sensation Seekers. Along the way I discuss how SSRI‘s (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) function in the synapse. Come along for the ride.

Resources On Extreme Sports

Personality Psychology website at Arcadia. This site has a lot of great resources on personality. Highly recommended.

Take the sensation-seeking scale here.

Lots of resources on personality can be found at the Personality Pedagogy site.

A nice overview of Sensation Seeking can be found in Motivation Theories and Pinciples 5th edition by Robert Beck.

Biopsychology by John Pinel has some excellent illustrations and extensive explanations on how neurotransmitters work.

Interesting in Time Magazine online called, Why We Take Risks: It’s the Dopamine.

Media Resources for this Episode

Thanks to the band 3Kisses for allowing me to use “It’s Not About You” for the soundtrack to my extreme snowmobile chase.

Extreme Bungee on YouTube.

Here’s the YouTube video showing the extreme hang gliding video featured in this episode.

The snowmobile chase machinima was made with the video game Stuntman: Ignition

Here’s a link to one of the many machinima sites.

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The Psych Files Podcast » Dopamine

Episode 35: The Psychology of Extreme Sports

Resources On Extreme Sports

Media Resources for this Episode