Measurement of Risk Takers' Personality

Abstract

An inventory was constructed to assess risk takers' personality characteristics, enhance the understanding of risk takers' personality in general, and provide a tool for the selection of candidates for high-risk jobs. On the basis of extant knowledge on risk takers' personality attributes, items were selected for the construction of a questionnaire which assessed respondents' attitudes towards situations and actions characterized by tension, risk, and adventure. An item analysis was carried out on the first version of the questionnaire, administered to 124 men and 68 women aged 20 to 45 yr., from different education levels and occupations. At a 3-wk. retest, reliability was high (0.90, N = 43). A test of concurrent validity yielded significant differences between the means of groups differing in the extent of risk involved in their occupations. To assess predictive validity, the final version was administered to 40 policemen in a voluntary high-risk unit. A significant r of .64 was obtained between inventory scores of these policemen and the evaluations by their commanders of their job performance. Theoretical and practical implications of the inventory were discussed.