Introduction: Anger, fear, boredom or awe! Living and working in extreme environments confronts astronauts, analog-astronauts, professionals working in extreme environments but also adventurers with a high variety of emotions and requires complex emotional regulation strategies. Yet they have been rarely addressed in the context of psychological research focusing on extreme environments. The studies that do exist often approach topics in a structured way, for example using validated questionnaires. That way they obtain reliable information, but also miss a wide scope of emotions and strategies that do not come under categories included in the research tool.

The aim of this study was to qualitatively investigate a wide scope of emotional experience and coping strategies used by analogue astronauts during the analogue space missions on earth. The goal was to develop insight into occurring emotions during analog missions. Further it aimed to outline coping strategies that people use in extreme environments. Moreover, it was recorded to what extent self-regulatory (intrinsic) and coregulatory (extrinsic) aspects play a role in dealing with one’s own emotions. In addition, the study aimed to outline how individual regulatory strategies can change over the duration of a mission. The design of the study was based on preliminary work by Wagstaff and Weston (2014), who previously examined emotion regulation processes in an isolated sample.

The study was conducted during two analog space missions: Mars Desert Research Society (MDRS) mission and AMADEE24 mission organised by Austrian Space Forum (OeWF), as well as during a solo Antarctica crossing expedition. However, this presentation will only show results from MDRS and OeWF missions.

Methods: Analog Astronauts completed The Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire before the start of the mission, followed by open questions related to the upcoming mission. During the mission, they kept a structured diary daily (during MDRS mission) or every second day (during OeWF mission). The diary was paper-based during MDRS mission and app-based during the OeWF mission. The diary was based on prompt questions about emotions and emotion regulation strategies. They completed this on their own at a specified time. In addition, they used an emotion list daily or every second day to name which emotions they have experienced and to what intensity. Following the mission, the CERQ was reused in a post-measurement.

Results: We conducted open thematic analysis of the diaries, labelled all the emotions, thoughts, states, events, self-reflections, coping strategies and outcomes of the coping strategies. These labels were later grouped into broader categories. We also analysed the emotions list in terms of intensity of different emotions at different stages of the missions. Preliminary results of this analysis will be presented during the science workshop.

Source: Alexandra de Carvalho¹, Sylwia Izabela Kaduk¹, Leonie Hanh¹, “EIEE – Emotions in Extreme Environments”, AMADEE-24 Science Workshop Booklet 2024

¹ Austrian Space Forum Human Factors Team