‘I don’t want to die. That’s not why I do it at all’: multifaceted motivation, psychological health, and personal development in BASE jumping

ABSTRACT

This study explored a veteran female BASE jumper's experiences in relation to (a) participation phases, motivations and emotions; (b) risk perceptions and psychological management strategies; (c) psychological effects of accidents and fatalities on risk appraisals and her protective frame; and (d) psychological health and personal development benefits of extreme sport participation. Interview data revealed multifaceted motivations for BASE jumping that evolved over time. Emotion induction and pleasant psychological experiences associated with BASE jumping contributed to psychological health, well-being and personal development, while coping with negative experiences and dynamic risk perceptions fostered mental strength and resilience. Continued participation following negative experiences highlighted the importance of protective frames in facilitating positive extreme sport experiences. Findings suggested that BASE jumping motivations and experiences may be more complex and multifaceted than currently conceptualized, and that extreme sport has the potential to promote psychological health and personal development in ways that are often overlooked.

KEYWORDS:

• Extreme sports
• psychological well-being
• reversal theory
• protective frame
• case study
• adventure

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

John H. Kerr, PhD, is an adjunct professor of sport & exercise psychology at the University of British Columbia. Previously, he held university positions in the UK, Netherlands, and Japan. His research interests include the influence of motivation, emotion, and arousal on performance; psychological benefits of participation in physical activities; team process; performance of elite winning and losing teams; and aggression/violence in sport. He has published widely in psychology, sport, and exercise journals, and is author, co-author, or editor of 10 psychology books, including Rethinking aggression and violence in sport (2005); Counselling athletes: Applying reversal theory (2001); Motivation and emotion in sport (1997); Understanding soccer hooliganism (1994).

Susan Houge Mackenzie, PhD, is a lecturer at the University of Otago Department of Tourism. Previously, she served as a whitewater guide and safety assessor in New Zealand, Chile, and the USA. Her research seeks to understand the diverse ways that adventure can foster psychological well-being by developing and applying positive psychology theories, such as flow theory, self-determination theory, and reversal theory. Her work has been applied across adventure tourism, recreation, and education contexts to inform curriculum development, customer experience design, mental skill training workshops, and consulting for agencies such as the US Forest Service, The History Channel, the New Zealand Ministry of Tourism, and Galapagos tour operators.

ORCID

Susan Houge Mackenzie http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5660-6325

Notes

1 www.blinc.magazine.com.

2 Vagal tone can be measured by changes in heart rate and breathing (e.g. Kok and Fredrickson 2010). The proposed ‘vagal circuit of emotion’ integrates brain function and the parasympathetic nervous system to account for the expression and regulation of emotion (Porges, Doussard-Roosevelt, and Maiti 1994).

3 Structural phenomenology has been defined as ‘the search for pattern and structure in the way in which experience is interpreted.’ (Apter 1981, 173).

4 This is the common term for a gathering of skydivers at a drop zone. Most drop zones have at least one official yearly boogie to celebrate local jumpers. These events range from small gatherings to hundreds of skydivers (see www.extremesports.about.com/od/skydiving/fl/TheHistoryoftheBoogieforfurtherinformation).