Introduction
Life
Support
Air,
Water, and Nutrition
Waste
Management
Mental
Health
Suits
Radiation
and Zero-G
Habitat
On Mars
Power
Structure
Daily
Routine |
The
Human Factor
Life Support: Mental
Health
Psychological Prophylaxis and
Treatment
Crew
Selection | Psychological Training | Ergonomics
Crew Selection
Prevention (prophylaxis) of asthenia (psychogenic
debilitation) begins with the early selection of crews, which allows time
for the personalizing of prevention-treatment plans for each individual
crew member, based on their typological traits and their sensitivity to
psychotherapy and pharmacological agents.
Another important aspect of crew selection
is to optimize the psychological compatability of space crews. Russian
behavioral research on Salyut and Mir has shown that on long term flights,
compatibility rather than complementarity of crew personality traits is
more important, particularly in these areas:
flexibility
cautiousness
high adaptability
emotional stability
morality and personal sensitivity
stable self control and tact in interpersonal
interactions
trustworthiness
ability to avoid on perceived faults/mistakes
of other crew members
It was also found that age and past experience
in a crew commander increased crew compatibility significantly. TOP
Psychological Training
Preflight training in group interactions
is vital to the launching of an effective inflight team. The developmental
stages in new crews can last from a few months to a few years before a
succesfully cooperating team is formed. The progression through the developmental
stages have been found to be constant from group to group and are as follows:
Orientation
The activity of members is targeted at
finding information about their future activity, each other, conditions
of joint training. The crew members also compare their own desires and
behavior to those of their team members.
Mutual-Adjustment
The most severe conflicts and problems,
indicative of team compatability, arise in this stage as crew members must
compromise on the most important and personal issues and learn to accomodate
each other. Hopefully, this stage will give way to the stabilization stage,
but other outcomes include the worsening of team interactions and the development
of isolated work areas by the crew members, both leading to an unfavorable
decline in the effectiveness of the team.
Stabilization
The stabilization stage is characterized
by the realtively spontaneous coordination of decisions, behaviors, and
actions within the crew. Crews that have successfully reached this stage
do not exhibit stressful interpersonal conflicts or fundamental disagreements.
Stable-Adaptation
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