The increased heterogeneity of ISS crews' composition (in terms of nationality, profession andgender) together with stressful situations, due to space flight, can have significant impact ongroup interaction, cohesiveness, as well as communications with Mission Control Center andmission success in general. Culturally related differences in values, goals, and behavioral normscould influence mutual perception and, thus, cohesive group formation. The purpose of onboard"Interaction-Attitudes" experiment is to study the patterns of small group (space crew) behaviorin extended space flight. Onboard studies were performed in the course of ISS Missions 19-30with participation of twelve Russian crew-members. Experimental schedule included 3 phases:preflight training and Baseline Data Collection; inflight activities once in two weeks; post-flightmeasurement. We used Personal Self-Perception and Attitudes (PSPA) software for analyzingsubjects' attitudes toward social environment (crew-members and MCC). It is based on thesemantic differential of Ch. Osgood and the repertory grid technique of G. Kelly. To study thecontent of interpersonal perception we used content-analysis with participation of the experts,independently attributing each construct to the 17 meaningful categories, which were describedin our previous study. The obtained data demonstrate that the system of values and personalorientations in the majority of participated cosmonauts remained mostly stable under stressfactorsof extended space flight. Content-analysis of the important criteria elaborated by thesubjects for evaluation of social environment, showed that the most valuable personal traits forcosmonauts are those that provide the successful fulfillment of professional activity (motivation,intellectual level, knowledge, self-discipline) and good social relationships (sociability,friendship, tolerance), as well. Study of changes in perceptions, regarding Real Self and IdealSelf, showed no significant difference between images of representatives of foreign spaceagencies and Russian crewmembers after space flight. A certain difference in perceptions wasobserved in cosmonauts with more integrated system of evaluations: after space flight theyperceived foreign participants closer to their Ideal, while Russian crew-members were perceivedmostly as "distant" from Ideal Self of these subjects. Perceptions of people from Earth were alsomore critical. These differences are probably manifestations of stereotyping of interpersonalperception – a phenomenon that can be both a cause and a consequence of tension inrelationships. A set of parameters, representing the integrity level of the subject's interpersonalperception as an indicator of interpersonal stress in the crew was proposed. It can be used inpractice of psychological selection and inflight support.
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