Human interactions during Shuttle/Mir space missions

To improve the interpersonal. climate of crewmembers involved with long-dur ation space missions, it is important to understand the factors affecting t heir interactions with each other and with members of mission control. This paper will present findings from a recently completed NASA-funded study du ring the Shuttle/Mir program which evaluated in-group/out-group displacemen t of negative emotions; changes in tension, cohesion, and leader support ov er time; and cultural. differences. In-flight data were collected from 5 as tronauts, 8 cosmonauts, and 42 American and 16 Russian mission control pers onnel who signed informed consent. Subjects completed a weekly questionnair e that assessed their mood and perception of their work group's interperson al climate using questions from well-known, standardized measures (Profile of Mood States, Group and Work Environment Scales) and a critical incident log. There was strong evidence for the displacement of tension and dysphori c emotions from crewmembers to mission control personnel and from mission c ontrol personnel to management. There was a perceived decrease in commander support during the 2(nd) half of the missions, and for American crewmember s a novelty effect was found on several subscales during the first few mont hs on-orbit. There were a number of differences between American and Russia n responses which suggested that the former were less happy with their inte rpersonal environment than the latter. Mission control personnel reported m ore tension and dysphoria than crewmembers, although both groups scored bet ter than other work groups on Earth. Nearly all reported critical incidents came from ground subjects, with Americans and Russians showing important d ifferences in response frequencies. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.