Prosocial and antisocial aspects of personality in women: a replication study

Several studies seem to favour the existence of a continuum between prosociality and antisociality. The aim of the present study was to replicate the functions found in men in a sample of women. Physical-risk taking activities can be classified along a continuum ranging from prosociality to antisociality, the risky sports being in an intermediate point of that hypothetical dimension. The sample consisted of 43 antisocial risk takers incarcerated for having committed armed robbery, 52 risk-taker sportswomen, 74 prosocial risk takers, and 58 women not engaged in any risky activity. Subjects were administered the Sensation Seeking scale, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Impulsiveness scale of the Impulsiveness–Venturesomeness–Empathy Questionnaire, the Socialization scale of the California Psychological Inventory, and the Susceptibility to Punishment and Reward scales. Discriminant analysis identified in females the same three different profiles of physical risk-taking personality found in males: (1) the Impulsive Unsocialized Sensation Seeker; (2) the Venturesomeness; and (3) the Seeker of Experiences by a nonconforming life style. Moreover, the results seem to support the validity and generalizability across gender of the model being considered. The four personality variables that best discriminate among the risk-taking types are: Socialization, Thrill and Adventure Seeking, Experience Seeking, and Neuroticism.