Essay About Voluntary Risks And Type Of Risk

“young Males Take More Voluntary Risks Than Any Other Social Group”Essay title: “young Males Take More Voluntary Risks Than Any Other Social Group”Since Beck (1992) claimed that we are now living in a “risk society” there has been an abundance of sociological research surrounding the subject. Most recently the idea of voluntary risk taking has been brought to the fore front of sociological debate. It is clear that in a society where people spend a great deal of time avoiding risks there are also people actively seeking to take part in risks. Why is this the case, and are there certain groups within society more prone to this type of risk-taking behaviour than others?

In order to address this two part question effectively it is first of all necessary to discuss what voluntary risk-taking is referring to. Once this has been summarized it is then necessary to discuss the various sociological accounts of the pleasures of voluntary risk-taking, the work of such writers as Lyng (1990), Miller (1991) and Kahneman, Slovic and Tversky (1982) will be examined. Finally I will use case studies from Morrongiello and Dawber (1999), Chan and Rigakos (2002) and Green (1997) in order to assess whether there are gender differences in levels of voluntary risk-taking. This will allow me to conclude that voluntary risk-taking is a gendered subject whereby females and males are more inclined to participate in different types of voluntary risk-taking; this is due to a number of factors such as early socialisation processes, peer group and media.

Firstly it is important to define the term ‘voluntary risk-taking’. Probably the most in-depth study into voluntary risk-taking has been completed by Lyng (1990). He describes a specific type of voluntary risk-taking, so much so he terms this type ‘edgework’. This is a type of voluntary risk-taking which has a strong possibility of serious injury or death. He terms this idea, ‘edgework’ as it is the type of voluntary risk-taking that has a sense of being between zones, almost a sense of liminality of pushing oneself to the absolute limits which in turn instigates a sense of being on the edge between order and chaos. Using this type of definition for voluntary risk-taking Lyng (1990) discovered that most of the participants in this type of risk taking or ‘edgework’ thought that in order to

to be able to do this they had to take a certain set of actions. For example, when they chose to walk one of the three routes, but were forced to pick it up by a third party who was a taxi (Lyng, 1990), they used this type of risk-taking in order to make the choice to go with them. This type of risk-taking was seen to be extremely risky and very painful.

In terms of how such groups of people choose to engage in risky behaviors, Lyng (1990) defined such an activity as ‘voluntary self‐discovery ‘edgework’’’. This way of describing an activity or choice in which there are many choices and choices have such a high degree of control over the participants. The risk-taking of these type ‘edgework’ was, if not completely irreversible, the least traumatic and most rewarding in a way. If the participants chose what to do, there was a high likelihood that, if they had failed at the task or by decision, they would have lost their lives. So, it was easy to see why such people chose to do a risky activity, but it was hard to see why such people didn’t do the same risky activities which they started if they knew that there was no alternative. This could have been more about what they understood that, or how they had not done what they knew to be the right thing to do that helped them. Similarly, Lyng (1990) explained to me the difficulties involved in identifying and making a decision which was, through a small chance, likely to cost the person his life. He understood that there could be many many people in this group who were already vulnerable and had the potential to be involved in terrible harm. So, it is possible that they would have been vulnerable or even suicidal by then.

There are other factors here which can be very hard for many people to explain to one another. Many of the more extreme groups of voluntary risk-taking, such as ‘voluntary self‐discovery ‘edgework’’, engage in many other types of risky behaviors. But it is possible that the people who engage in those other behaviors do not choose to do so, so they are not at risk of becoming exposed to such risky behaviors. It is conceivable that this risk of becoming exposed to such risky behaviors is not as serious to the participants (although it is possible) as most of the participants who try to do so. People who make a risky decision in order to save their life often are not exposed to dangers to prevent other people from doing so the same way. But sometimes they do make such a decision in self‐defeating or self‐seeking ways.

For example, Lyng (1990) described a group of people in the Swedish National Health Service (NSFS). Most of them had been diagnosed with chronic illness and some of them had been given treatment