Risk-taking is viewed as an aspect of proneness to problem behavior and a maladaptive trait and the tendency to engage in behaviors whose outcome is uncertain and entails negative consequences. Though risk-taking behavior is likely to be harmful or dangerous, it can also be functional and goal-directed and play an important part in developmental tasks. According to cognitive psychologists, many factors such as decision-making, perceptions gains and losses, expectations about the future and biases in risk perception affect a persons risk-taking behavior in developmental tasks. This book provides new research in the psychology of risk taking.