Psychology Report

5 Pages 1342 Words

During Expedition One a range of psychological measures, informal observation, crew discussion and other means were used to collect information about crew psychological issues. The overall goal of the psychological studies was to gain insight into crew individual and group issues that may be relevant to a human mission to Mars or other prolonged human spaceflight. Another goal was to gather information relevant to improved functioning for future MDRS crews. Most of the comments below relate to Phases III and IV, when the majority of data collection took place, but some is relevant to the entire mission.

Along with specifically psychological measures, the crew psychologist was also involved in human factors studies. These are covered in a separate Human Factors report.

Major psychology research findings from ExOne will be reported in future publications once data can be properly analysed. The purpose of the current document is to summarise the measures used, impressions regarding outcomes of the studies and recommendations/implications for the future.

Formal Measures - Social Psychological Measures

All crew members completed a questionnaire entitled "Personal and Group Functioning Survey". This instrument was developed by social psychologists Dr Kate Reynolds & Dr Rachael Eggins at the School of Psychology, Australian National University. It is based on an extensive literature and research on issues of group identity and goal alignment conducted by the Social Psychology Research Unit at ANU. It aims to help determine the extent to which crew members on ExOne identified with ExOne overall as well as with it's subgroups such as Field Science and Mission Systems. In turn it aims to measure the degree to which crewmembers aligned their personal goals with the overall ExOne group and it's subgroups. Crewmembers in Phases III and IV completed the questionnaire three times each week. The data will be analysed back at ANU and results...