Psychological Aspects of Stress in the Antarctic

Abstract

The International Biomedical Expedition to the Antarctic (IBEA) was a five nation, interdisciplinary endeavour designed to assess human responses during a long polar traverse. The present study was a part of the IBEA and was designed to predict and assess the perceived stress and psychological coping ability of the expedition members. It begins with a review of previous Antarctic studies which revealed that Antarctic personnel were above average in intelligence, stable, controlled and achievement orientated. Their performance was most accurately predicted by biographic variables, followed by psychometric guestionnaires and clinical ratings. An interactive theoretical model of stress and coping was adopted in which stress was defined as the substantial imbalance between the perceived demand and an individual's capacity to fulfill the demand. Coping was defined as the process in which this imbalance was minimized. A withdrawal of treatments design was used to identify stress, and comparisons were made between the 12 man, experimental group and a multivariate non-randomized control group in New Zealand. Stress was measured with the Hopkins Symptom Checklist, the Stress Arousal Checklist, the "Mental Paper Fo1ding" Test, and the Series Completion Test. The results showed no significant differences between the groups on any measure. Coping style was assessed using the Repression Sensitization Scale and the Adaptability Questionnaire and the results suggested that many subjects repressed and therefore did not report stress responses. The results of the prediction of Antarctic performance from a range of measures used in the present study were in agreement with previous findings of earlier researchers. The study also made use of participant observation methods from which a descriptive account was prepared, Future research is required in two main areas, the evaluation of Antarctic coping techniques and the preparation of. actuarial tables to improve the prediction of performance.