Involvement in Risk Recreation: A Comparison of Objective and Subjective Measures of Engagement

Abstract

The “Adventure Model” suggested a positive relationship between intrinsic motives and levels of engagement based on the self-reported level of experience of participants in risk recreation. This conclusion, however, was not supported by the empirical evidence reported by Ewert and Hollenhorst (1989). This note reports briefly on a study of rockclimbers which examined three methods of assessing the level of engagement of participants, namely, skill level, self-reported experience and the perceived importance of the activity or involvement. Of these, both experience and involvement demonstrated a relationship between the level of engagement and motivations. However, only the latter exhibited the proposed increase in intrinsic motivations with engagement. On this basis, it is proposed that the importance an individual attaches to participation or the involvement level may provide a more appropriate basis for assessing the levels of engagement in future empirical analysis of the “Adventure Model”.