SUMMARY
The present study was conducted for the purpose of examining the personality traits of extreme athletes. In line with this purpose a total of 227 extreme athletes, as 86 female and 141 male athletes selected through judgment sampling, that either actively compete or trains to compete in any of the branches of snowboarding, snowkiting, kitesurfing, windsurfing, river kayaking, mountain biking, free diving, paragliding and rafting were included within the sample group of the study. Questionnaire applications were carried out in extreme sports facilities throughout the country.Within the scope of the study, an 85-item short form of the Five Factor Personality Scale developed by Somer, Korkmaz and Tatar was used as the data collection tool. Data analysis was carried out by means of the SPSS 16.0 software and the percentages frequencies, mean, standard deviation and to find the differences between the sexes "independent t" test were calculated.Examining the obtained results showed that the male athletes have higher extravertion level from female athletes (p <0.05). This finding obtained in our study suggest that, in an essentially male-dominant society, the higher level of pressure women are subjected to in social, economic, cultural and psychological terms and the difficulties and pressure they experience in the working life are significant factors for women to be more introvert. ÖzetBu arastirma, ekstrem sporcularin kisilik özelliklerinin incelemesi amaciyla yapilmistir. Bu amaç dogrultusunda arastirmaya, yargisal örnekleme yöntemiyle seçilmis, snowboard, snowkite, uçurtma sörfü, rüzgar sörfü, akarsu ve nehir kanosu, dag bisikleti, serbest dalis, yamaç parasütü, kaya tirmanisi ve rafting branslarinda yarismaci olan ya da bir yarismaya katilmak için hazirlik yapan, 86’si kadin, 141’i erkek olmak üzere 227 ekstrem sporcu katilmistir. Anket uygulamalari, ülke genelinde bulunan ekstrem spor tesislerinde gerçeklestirilmistir. Arastirmada veri toplamak amaciyla Somer, Korkmaz ve Tatar tarafindan gelistirilen bes faktör kisilik envanterinin 85 sorudan olusan kisa forumu kullanilmistir. Elde edilen veriler SPSS programinda kaydedilmis, frekans, yüzde, aritmetik ortalama, standart sapma degerleri hesaplanmis ve cinsiyetler arasi farkliligi bulmak için “independent samples t- test” kullanilarak yorumlanmistir.Elde edilen bulgular incelendiginde, erkek sporcularin erkek sporcularin kadin sporculara oranla daha yüksek disa dönük özellik gösterdigi görülmektedir (p <0.05). Sonuç olarak; temelde erkek egemen bir toplumda, sosyal, ekonomik, kültürel ve psikolojik anlamda kadinin daha çok baskiya maruz kalmasi, sosyal hayatinda üstelendigi roller, is hayatinda karsilasilan zorluk ve baskilarin bir sonucu olarak, daha içe kapanik bir yapiya sahip olmalarinda önemli bir etken oldugunu düsündürmektedir.