Applying positive psychology in the study of extreme environments.

NASA: Positive psychology orientation for the selection of personnel for isolated, confined environments and extreme and unusual environments is presented. It is suggested that personnel for isolated environments be selected for their ability to live and work in such an environment. The traditional negative psychology orientation focuses on characteristics such as demanding work, long stretches of empty time, unusual circadian rhythms, problems with group and interpersonal relationships, narrowed cognitive focus, cross-cultural differences, flattened leadership hierarchy, excessive interpersonal intimacy, and interaction with off site management. A positive psychology orientation focuses on the natural grandeur of the environment, mystery, efficiency, coziness, comfort, novelty and familiarity, improvisation, free time, time out from daily hassles, and social group characteristics such as camaraderie, intimacy, inderdependence, superordinate goals, and belonging to an elite group.^ieng

The relative importance of behavioral issues during long-duration ICE missions.

Previous studies of isolated and confined environments (ICEs) have been unable to assign relative priority to the many behavioral issues affecting participants. The current study analyzed psychologically relevant entries in the journals of nine leaders and physicians of French circumpolar expeditions. More than 100 specific themes emerged, distributed across 22 categories. Group Interaction was found to be the most salient of the categories, followed by Outside Communications, Workload, Recreation and Leisure, Medical Support, Adjustment, Leadership, Event, and Food. Substantial evidence of a third quarter phenomenon was found in all expeditions. Unexpectedly, shorter missions (69-180 d) generated more negative reactions than longer missions (230-363 d) and diaries from the sub-Antarctic stations were more negative than those from the Antarctic. The study provides quantitative bases for judgments concerning the relative importance of psychological issues.

Psychological adjustment during three Japanese Antarctic research expeditions.

This study investigates the individual characteristics of Japanese polar team members. Four sets of measures from the Polar Psychology Project Battery have been used in Asuka Station. These measures are thought to reflect adjustment and well-being. Data have been collected during 3 consecutive years. The psychological profile of the subjects was relatively stable, and comparable to the standard means of Western sojourners. The results show the subjects were generally high in stress resistance. However, an increase in the Planning Orientation score and a decrease in the Hardiness score appear at the end of the wintering-over. These modifications correspond to psychological changes linked to the approaching end of wintering-over.

Antarctica natural laboratory and space analogue for psychological research.

This introduction to the special issue traces the history of psychosocial concerns related to Antarctic exploration, from the heroic age of early explorers through the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957 to 1958 to recent and current systematic research projects. The introduction discusses the organization and topics of international psychological investigations in polar stations and summarizes the articles that follow. Living in Antarctica imposes some unusual restrictions as well as opportunities, and it requires psychological adaptation to extreme environmental circumstances. The thrust of previous scientific and popular literature has been to focus on the negative effects of the situation and ignore the positive ones; however, ongoing studies are bringing about a more balanced view. Having an accurate understanding is important not only intrinsically and for appropriate application in the Antarctic itself but also in analogous extreme and unusual environments. These include extended space flight and space habitation, such as the projected voyage to Mars.

The environmental psychology of capsule habitats.

Capsule habitats make it possible for human beings to survive and function in environments that would otherwise be lethal, such as space, the ocean depths, and the polar regions. The number of people entering capsules in the course of their work or for purposes of recreation is constantly increasing. However, long-term living in such habitats imposes physical and psychological risks as well as offering opportunities and benefits. This paper reviews what is known about the environmental, social, and personality aspects of adaptation to capsules, including sources of stress, selection criteria, obstacles to and facilitators of adequate coping, changes in group interaction, the role of temporal factors, and post-mission consequences.

Structural aspects of survivors' thinking about the Holocaust.

Videotaped interviews of 30 Holocaust survivors were scored for integrative complexity, the recognition of alternate perspectives or dimensions of a topic ("differentiation") and the joint consideration of several perspectives or dimensions ("integration"). Memories showed decreased differentiation and integration as they moved from pre-war life to the shock and upheaval when organized persecution began. High complexity levels reflected survivors mustering their resources to enhance their chances of survival and successful postwar adaptation. These findings demonstrate the usefulness of quantitative, objective content analytic methods in Holocaust survivor research, add a cognitive dimension to the study of survival during and after extreme situations, and confirm theoretical propositions about decision making and information processing under stress.

What can abnormal environments tell us about normal people? Polar stations as natural psychology laboratories.

The psychological effects of unusual environments reveal different aspects of behaviour from those seen in more customary situations. Such environments provide natural laboratories in which many questions of psychological interest, varying with the specific environment, may be studied. This paper uses isolated polar stations to illustrate this point. In such settings, the usual parameters that control a variety of psychological processes are drastically changed, and confounding variables are stripped away. Consequently, the environment offers unique perspectives on environmental perception and cognition; adaptation to and use of the environment; environmental bonding; social interaction; and coping with environmental challenge.

People in high latitudes: the "Big Five" personality characteristics of the circumpolar sojourner.

The personality of the polar sojourner has been of interest to psychologists for a number of years. Using the NEO Five Factor Inventory, this study examined the general personality factors of the polar worker compared to a normative population, and how these factors differ according to the worker's occupational classification and the polar region in which he or she is working. It was found that polar workers scored higher than a normative group on all factors except Neuroticism. Comparisons across occupational groups showed that scientists were lower than military personnel on Extraversion and lower than technical/support staff on Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. The analysis by polar region indicated that Antarctic workers were higher than Arctic personnel on Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. A group of Italian Antarctic personnel, completing a translated form of the NEO-FFI, scored lower than the rest of the polar groups on all factors. These findings are discussed in light of various features of the polar environment and Gunderson's 3-predictor model of polar adaptability.

Health outcomes and cognitive aspects of recalled negative life events.

OBJECTIVE: Integrative complexity reflects the level of intellectual resources allocated to coping with a particular situation or problem. This study explored whether the recall of very unpleasant memories would occur at a different level of complexity from that of neutral memories, and whether differences in complexity would be related to health outcomes. METHODS: A series of essays, some dealing with negative life experiences and others with trivial events, had been written by undergraduates for a previous study. Complexity scores of these two types of essays were compared, and were correlated with a composite measure of well-being (immunological assays, visits to the Student Health Center, and self-reported distress and substance abuse). RESULTS: Essays about negative experiences were significantly higher in complexity, implying the allocation of more cognitive effort to the narrative. Subjects who wrote about negative events showed a significant relationship between complexity and improvement in wellness: Complexity scores closer to the median were associated with the most improvement (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Recalling negative life experiences engages increased cognitive effort, just as coping with negative experiences does. However, both low and high cognitive involvement are associated with lower levels of well-being than is a moderate level. The findings have implications for the relation between cognitive and emotional processes and between cognitive processes and health, as well as for the specific issue of how emotionally negative events are reconstructed in memory.

Thematic content analyses: nomothetic methods for using Holocaust survivor narratives in psychological research.

The overwhelming majority of psychological research on Holocaust survivors follows an idiographic model, which is concerned with studying and understanding individual personalities and how they have been affected by their experiences. Most such publications emphasize pathological characteristics, use psychodynamic theoretical formulations, and ignore criteria of rigorous behavioral science such as reliability, replicability, statistical significance, and safeguards against researcher and subject bias. This article describes a set of alternative research methods in which survivor narratives are randomly sampled and then analyzed according to established protocols. They thus provide quantitative data through means of acceptable scientific rigor. Such approaches can identify reliable, lawful patterns applicable to groups of individuals, and provide a suitable alternative to (not a replacement for) qualitative case or small-group methodology.

Human sleep-wake cycles in the high Arctic: effects of unusual photoperiodicity in a natural setting.

Studies of human circadian rhythms are typically conducted in artificial environments that are low in ecological validity. In the current study, six subjects and the field director lived in temporal isolation in a completely natural environment with constant daylight (a high Arctic research camp) for six weeks. Detailed daily sleep logs were kept. In keeping with past findings, five of the six subjects developed a free-running sleep-wake cycle longer than 24 hours. Unlike past results, the isolated subjects did not exhibit any synchronicity in their rhythins. There was a high degree of intersubject variability in circadian patterns. The findings have important implications for the comparison of the results of laboratory and field investigations of sleep-wake cycles.

Psychological functioning among members of a small polar expedition.

BACKGROUND: While depressed mood, insomnia, irritability and impaired cognition represent common responses to the physical and psychosocial stressors associated with polar environments, wide variations exist in their expression and the degree to which they adversely affect the health and performance of polar expeditioners. In particular, the process of successful adaptation to polar environments and the psychosocial characteristics associated with this process remains poorly understood. HYPOTHESIS: Psychosocial characteristics associated with successful coping with typical stressors are also associated with successful adaptation in polar environments. METHODS: The 4 men and 3 women participating in a 3-week scientific expedition in the Canadian High Arctic completed a battery of psychological questionnaires, including the Profile of Mood States (POMS), prior to their departure to Isachsen, N.W.T. In Isachsen, subjects completed the POMS and the Structured Interview Guide for the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale--Seasonal Affective Disorders Version (SIGH-SAD) each week. RESULTS: Good psychological adjustment was demonstrated by a significant decline in POMS factor scores for tension-anxiety (p = 0.005), fatigue (p < 0.0001), and confusion (p = 0.024) from baseline to Week 3, and a significant decline in SIGH-SAD depressive symptoms (p < 0.0001) during Weeks 1-3. This is attributed to high levels of paratelic dominance and low levels of neuroticism, and use of planful problem-solving as a coping strategy more frequently than other coping strategies. CONCLUSIONS: Improved psychological functioning among polar expeditioners reflects a combination of psychosocial characteristics that facilitate successful adaptation to any stressful experience, as well as characteristics specifically adaptive for living in polar environments.

Residents' assessment of a community-based alcohol initiative in the Canadian Arctic.

This paper evaluated a community-based initiative to control alcohol abuse in the Canadian Arctic by identifying, from an Inuit perspective, what components have been successful in the reduction of alcohol abuse and what components require improvement. Data were collected through interviews with community leaders, supplemented by a broadly-based survey. The most successful strategy in the reduction of alcohol abuse was the imposition of restrictions on the availability of alcohol. Counselling services did to some extent heighten community awareness about the deleterious effects of alcohol misuse, but have had marginal impact on the reduction of abuse. Residents and community leaders involved in running the alcohol program believe that a combination of the establishment of self-help groups, further counsellor training, increased community support, and improved outreach strategies would provide a greater impetus for change leading to the reduction of alcohol abuse within the community.

Influence of a perpetual-daylight Arctic environment on periodicity in human cholesterol synthesis.

To identify factors associated with control of human cholesterol synthesis, periodicity in cholesterogenesis, hormonal levels and food consumption behavior were examined in 5 healthy individuals at the beginning and end of 18 d in a perpetual daylight Arctic environment devoid of time cues. At d 2 (phase I) and d 16 (phase II), cholesterol fractional synthesis rate was determined at 6 h intervals over 30 h as deuterium incorporation into plasma free cholesterol. Total plasma cholesterol, insulin and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide were also measured at each timepoint. Food intake and sleeping patterns were recorded prior to and during each phase. Cholesterol fractional synthesis rate (FSR) exhibited periodicity in all subjects on each phase, but did not differ between phase I (FSR rate = 0.038 +/- 0.038 pools.d-1) and phase II (FSR rate = 0.037 +/- 0.072 pools.d-1) phases. Phase II FSR period length was associated with both the duration between first and last meals (r2 = 0.81, p = 0.037) and total hours spent awake (r2 = 0.99, p = 0.001). Insulin and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide levels were not associated with FSR periodicity. These results suggest that meal timing and sleep/wake cycles are more important factors than insulin and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide in controlling the rhythms of whole body cholesterol synthesis.

Progressive muscle relaxation and restricted environmental stimulation therapy for chronic tension headache: a pilot study.

Thirty-one patients suffering from chronic tension headache participated in one of four procedures, each of which comprised two one-and-one-half hour sessions per week for 4 weeks. The conditions were: Chamber/Control (both weekly sessions lying on a bed in a dimly-lit room), and three active treatment procedures: Chamber/Tank, one session as above, the other floating in a dark, silent REST tank; Chamber/Relaxation, one as above, one doing progressive muscle relaxation exercises; and Tank/Relaxation, one session floating and one doing progressive muscle relaxation. By 6 months after the end of treatment, complete data had been obtained from 20 subjects. There was a significant overall decrease in headache reports; the active treatment groups collapsed improved significantly more than the control group. At the 6-month followup, the treatment groups showed continuing improvement (57% over end of treatment for the Tank-Relaxation group and a mean of 25% for the other two), whereas the control group had deteriorated by 34% since end of treatment. Clinical improvements were comparable to those of more time- and effort-consuming relaxation therapies, and confirm the usefulness of REST as a long-lasting and versatile treatment in behavioral health.

Restricted environmental stimulation and smoking cessation: a 15-year progress report.

The first successful use of restricted environmental stimulation therapy (REST) as a method of smoking cessation was reported in this journal in 1972. Since then, close to 20 papers and articles have further investigated this application. The results have been consistently positive and have further shown that--unlike most techniques--REST combines synergistically with other effective treatment modalities. The effect of REST seems to target primarily the major problem with other known treatments in this area: It substantially reduces the relapse rate among clients who quit smoking at the end of treatment. Furthermore, REST is safe, has no known adverse side effects, and is easily tolerated by most participants. Nevertheless, the method has not found wide acceptance among practitioners. This paper explores and answers some of the concerns that may be involved in its relative lack of popularity.

The Polar Psychology Project (PPP): a cross-national investigation of polar adaptation.

The Polar Psychology Project brings together three organizations from Canada and Argentina to study human adaptation to the boreal and austral circumpolar environments. It will involve both specially formed research groups and wide-scale administration of a standard test battery, and will apply recent theoretical, methodological and technical developments in the study of personality, social interaction and psychophysiology to the study of polar adaptation. Colleagues from other groups and nations are invited to participate in the Project.

Reduction of post-ECT memory complaints through brief, partial restricted environmental stimulation (REST).

1. A previous paper (Suedfeld, et al. 1987) reported on preliminary results of placing patients into a room with substantially reduced environmental stimulation (REST) immediately after recovery from ECT. 2. Comparing two depressed patients who had undergone this experience with three who had instead returned to their own hospital room (Ward), Suedfeld et al. (1987) found that the former registered much fewer complaints concerning memory loss related to ECT administration than the latter. 3. The current report extends this finding to a total of 19 patients, of whom 13 completed four testing sessions. Once again, objective tests of memory showed no significant change as a function of ECT. Both groups of patients complained of substantial memory disruption after the first ECT. By the one-week follow-up, such complaints were minimal among REST patients but showed only a slight decline among the Ward group. This was the only significant intergroup difference.

Memory effects of restricted environmental stimulation therapy (REST) and possible applications to ECT.

Restricted environmental stimulation (REST) has been shown to facilitate learning and memory in both human and animal experimental subjects. This paper reports early data from a test of the usefulness of REST in reducing post-ECT amnesia in depressive patients. Two such patients were placed in a quiet, dimly illuminated room for 2-4 hrs. after recovering from each ECT administration in a series of treatments; three others, following standard practice, were returned to their normal hospital rooms. Measures of memory (verbal, numerical, nonverbal, life event, and self-rating) were given prior to the first ECT treatment; after the first post-recovery session; after the last post-recovery session; and one week after the last ECT administration. The major difference found was that the REST group showed an improvement in self-rated memory functioning from the first to the last ECT administration that was 15 times as great as that reported by the control group. This finding is interesting because of the major role played by self-reported memory disturbances in the scientific, clinical, and popular evaluation of ECT. The sample size is being increased, as it must be for any reliable conclusions to be drawn from this study.

Restricted environmental stimulation therapy of smoking: a parametric study.

Restricted environmental stimulation therapy (REST) has been shown in several studies to be an effective technique in smoking intervention. The most common procedure has been 24 hours in a dark, silent chamber; in several cases, messages designed to facilitate smoking cessation have been presented every few hours over an intercom. This study parametrically varied 12 versus 24 hour chamber REST sessions and four message presentation schedules (massed, distributed, or self-demand presentation of five messages, and a no message condition). A ninth group of volunteer subjects spent five one hour sessions in a flotation REST tank. In this condition, no message was presented during the first session; one message was given during each of the next three sessions; and two messages were given in the last session. Previous findings of therapeutic efficacy were confirmed for chamber REST, with 3- and 12-month follow-ups showing means of 51% and 35% reduction, and 34% and 21% abstinence, respectively. The 24-hour distributed message group, representing the modal technique, showed a mean reduction rate of 51% and an abstinence rate of 36% one year after treatment. There were no significant differences as a function of the two main factors nor the interaction. Most chamber REST groups showed significant smoking reductions on both follow-ups. Flotation REST led to a significant decrease three months after the treatment, but not at one year. The data have theoretical as well as practical implications for future uses of REST.