Exploring the explorers: studying the mood, mental health, cognition and the lived experience of extreme environments in a small isolated team confined to an Arctic research station

Background: The human ability to adapt to extreme environments is fascinating. Research into this adaptation has been lacking in Arctic isolated teams because it has concentrated on Antarctic teams. The hazards of the poles often confine the researchers indoors with their colleagues, reducing their privacy. This deployment also limits their contact with loved ones at home. Subsequently, over the course of polar night, rates of anxiety, depression, irritability and sleep disturbance increase (Suedfeld & Palinkas, 2008). Often, the teams complain of cognitive impairments. The High Arctic’s distinctive feature is the polar bear. The presence of bears requires Arctic research station teams to handle fire arms for their personal safety. It also means that fire arms – which are highly restricted in the Antarctic – are everpresent and easily accessible at Arctic stations. This poses a unique psychological challenge for these teams which has not been well-researched. Methodology: This thesis is an original contribution to science in that it employs a mixed-methods approach combining phenomenological interviews, cognitive testing and mental health assessment via questionnaires with a team spending a year at the Polish Polar Station, Hornsund, Svalbard. The participants were ten of the eleven winter team members who spent the year between July 2015 and June 2016 at Hornsund (“Explorers”) and an age-/gender-/education-matched control group (“Controls”). They filled in the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised and the Profile of Mood States-Brief Version in July, September, January, April and June of that year. Cognitive testing was completed in September, January and June; it comprised the Figural Learning and Memory Test, the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART), the elevator tasks of the Test of Everyday Attention (TEA) and the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices. The interviews took place at the same time as the cognitive testing. Results: The results showed that the most stressful time reported in the questionnaires was April 2016, just after the winter isolation had ended and the sun had risen again. The Explorers reported little subjective complaints about their cognition but they performed near-ceiling on the TEA while scoring far below their Controls on the SART. This implies a dichotomy between sustained attention and inhibition in the Explorers. Their lived experiences were shaped by a struggle to adapt to the other team members rather than by struggling to adapt to the hazardous environment. The environment was perceived as awe-inspiring. Over time, the Explorers shifted their view of the team from informal colleagues to a family which they did not choose to be a member of and then, to friends. Unanimously, other people were seen as the most difficult aspect of the mission. Conclusions: This thesis provides unique insight into a non-Anglo-Saxon Arctic wintering team: the conclusions suggest that participants should receive social training to get along better and be emotionally prepared. The findings can be implemented by my research partner, the Institute of Geophysics (Warsaw) to better select and prepare their future expeditions to Hornsund. Some of the insights such as the nature of the interpersonal stressors may be applicable to space missions. Lay Summary This thesis showcases the research into an Arctic expedition team: a group of eleven people who spent an entire year at the isolated Arctic research station at the Polish Polar Station, Hornsund, Svalbard. During this year, they were only allowed to leave in case of medical emergencies. Over the course of their mission, they repeatedly filled in questionnaires about the mental health and mood. They also took part in tests for their attention, memory, reasoning and inhibition skills. Additionally, they were interviewed about their personal experiences at the station. Their questionnaire and test results were compared to that of a control group who had the same age, sex and education as the expedition members. The results showed that the most difficult period was the spring: the expedition members felt most depressed and hostile towards others. During the winter, they described immense efforts to suppress this hostility. However, at the end of the mission they found that the winter isolation had been the most pleasant phase at the station because it was more quiet with less work to do. Their ability to inhibit responses was not as good as that of the control group, possibly because they were constantly inhibiting their hostility towards other team members. These observations suggest that in order to go on an Arctic expedition, people should receive social preparation training as well as safety training. Other people were continuously seen as the most dangerous or unpleasant aspect of the mission. Future research could validate these findings with different groups. Signed Declaration of Independent Work 1. I, Anna Gesine Marie Temp, am aware of and understand the University of Edinburgh’s policy on plagiarism; and I declare that this thesis is an original report of my research which has been composed solely by myself and that it has not been submitted, in whole or in part, in any previous application for a degree. Except where it states otherwise by reference or acknowledgement, the work presented is entirely my own. This includes the presented photographs. Parts of this work have been published in: (1) Temp, A. G. M. , Lee, B. , & Bak, T. H. (2017). Well-Being at the Polish Polar Station, Svalbard: Adaptation to Extreme Environments. In K. Latola & H. Savela (Eds.), The Interconnected Arctic — UArctic Congress 2016 (pp. 203– 2010). Retrieved from http://dx.doi. org/10.1007/978-3-319-57532-2 (2) Temp, A. G. M. , Lee, B. , & Bak, T. H. (2018). A Mixed Methods Approach in the Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard: Studying Cognition, Mental Health and Phenomenological Experiences in Small Teams Living in Isolation and Confinement. SAGE Research Methods Cases Psychology. 2. My contributions to (1) and (2) were as follows: I conceived this study with my supervisors who are the co-authors. I selected the questionnaires, the visual memory and logical reasoning tasks for the data collection, Dr Bak selected the attention tasks. Dr Lee audited the qualitative data. I collected the data, analysed the data, approached the publishers and wrote the publications which both co-authors proof-read. 3. For full transparency and easier access, Appendix B-E to this thesis are available on the Open Science Framework (OSF): osf.io/n894w