Nama :Muhammad Sultan Faraj

NIM : 00000059781 – H

ENGLISH

Risk-Takers: Who are They?

Biological reasons for risk - taking

Biologists appear to have discovered a physical reason that explains why some people
like Jamie are risk-takers. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, a chemical that transmits
signals between nerve cells . It is linked to the brain's reward system and is the
chemical that makes us feel good, and scientists believe it to be linked to risk-taking,
Our nerve cells have dopamine receptors which control the amount of dopamine that
each cell receives, but not all receptors may be active.Researchers at Vanderbilt
University in Nashville and Albert EinsteinCollege of Medicine in New York asked
34 men and women to complete a questionnaire about their risk-taking to assess
whether they seek new opportunities or are cautious in life. This was then followed
by a brain scan using a technique called positron emission tomography to analyse the
number of dopamine receptors that the participants had. The results of the research,
reported in the Journal of Neuroscience , were consistent with similar studies carried
out with rats, and had the same outcome.

Psychological reasons for risk-taking

Dopamine gives us a biological reason for risk-taking, scientists believe there may be
psychological rea o. Sensation-seeking is a personality trait that des desire to find
activities that bring us pleasure. In psychologist Marvin Zuckerman created the
sensatio seeking scale, a personality test which was designed to show how much of
the trait a person has, His 40-item questionnaire, still used today, was given to people
who were active in seeking new activities, and to people who were more satisfied
with a quiet life. The second is experience seeking; looking for new experiences.the
desire to take risks in social activities. The fourth is boredom susceptibility; a low
tolerance of boredom. A desire to achieve pleasure means that there is a greater
willingness to take more risks.5 Studies of identical twins have been carried out to
determine whether sensation-seeking is a result of genes or our environment. Pairs of
twins who had grown up together and pairs of twins who had grown up apart were
studied.

Age and risk-taking

Age is also relevant to the area of risk-taking. When we look at the actions of some
young people, they seem to have been done with a clear disregard for safety. Dr Jay
Giedd from the National Institute of Mental Health in the U.S. conducted a study
which involved scanning the brains of 145 children every two years for ten years
using an MRI scanner. This part of the brain is known to control the way we organise,
plan, make judgments and reason, so it is essential for calculating risk.

Gender and risk-taking

It may be believed that Jamie, the risk-taker introduced at the beginning of this paper,
takes risks simply because he is male, assuming that fewer women are risk-takers.
The research found that financial risks are more typical of men whereas social risks,
such as giving a controversial opinion in public or making a significant career
change, are more representative of women. The researchers suggest that when you are
less familiar with a situation, you are more likely to perceive it as risky. They believe
that men and women perceive situations differently, possibly because of their
different life experiences affected by their gender.

Conclusion

The research presented in this paper indicates that there are both biological and
psychological explanations as to why people like Jamie may choose to take more
risks than others. However, none of these explanations are definitive.