Personal Autonomy of Scuba Diver Trainees

Abstract

An investigation of personal autonomy levels as measured by the Pensacola Z scale was conducted on 147 scuba diving trainees at the University of California at Los Angeles. The study was part of an effort to develop insight into selection and training procedures for reliable underwater workers. Findings revealed that diver trainees described themselves as individualistically as did groups of astronauts and Antarctic scientists, but their Z-scale scores were not significantly different from other campus groups. Further, the Z-scale did not significantly differentiate between successful trainees and dropouts in the course. A weak relationship was found between the Z-scale score and scuba diving performance during pool testing. It was concluded that the qualities measured by the Z-scale test may be more important to the future diving careers of the subjects than to their selection and training.