One of the psychological concepts that has attracted attention from a wide variety of people (experts and laypeople alike) is the idea of isolation. This is particularly relevant in certain situations, such as solitary confinement in prison and long periods of isolation in space stations or submarines. One recent study examined the psychological effects of isolation among researchers living at the Concordia station in Antarctica (Sandal et al., 2018). This article will briefly present the methods used in this article as well as the results obtained.
Methods
The participants in the study consisted of the members of two crews (14 from one crew, 13 from another crew) living and working in the Concordia station in Antarctica for nine months. These participants ranged from 22 to 58 years old. The Concordia station is a French-Italian research station, and the participants were made up of 15 Italian members and 12 French members (both split among the two crews).
The Concordia station includes sleeping quarters, bathrooms, a hospital, research laboratories, a canteen, workshops, a waste water treatment plans, “social rooms (for video-watching, music)”, a gym, a kitchen, storage rooms, an electric power plant, and a boiler room. Altogether, the station can hold 60 people in the summer and 15-16 people during the winter, when the extreme temperatures make it difficult to work outside. Finally, people living in the station are limited to satellite telephone and limited email (there was no internet access when the study was conducted).
The data were collected throughout the nine-month period from February to October. Midwinter is considered to be the middle point of this period. The study considered the period to be split into the months prior to midwinter and the months post midwinter. The following measures were used:
- The Ultrecht Coping List (UCL), which measured different ways of dealing with problems (or coping strategies) as follows:
- “Active problem solving … acting immediately and being goal-oriented, sorting things out”
- “Palliative reactions … engaging in other activities, trying to relax”
- “Avoidance and passive expectancies … withdrawing from problematic situations”
- “Comforting cognitions … thinking that worse things happen, or that the situation may not be as bad as it seems”
- Sleep, as measured by a sleep diary:
- bedtime
- light out
- sleep onset latency
- number and duration of awakenings
- time of final awakening
- rise time
- sleep quality
- The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), which measures affective states as follows:
- Positive affect (feeling active, alert, attentive, determined, enthusiastic, excited, inspired, interested, proud, and strong)
- Negative affect (feeling afraid, ashamed, distressed, guilty, hostile, irritated, jittery, nervous, scared, and upset)
Results
The following results were obtained:
- Negative affect scores were consistently low throughout the study period (the authors suggested this was due to a reluctance among the crew members to express negative affect)
- Positive affect scores and coping strategies scores showed their minimum values around the cold and dark mid-winter months
- In general, the psychological variables showed declining values as midwinter approached, and showed increasing values as midwinter was further in the past
The authors partially attributed the negative psychological effects to hypoxia (inadequate oxygen). However, they noted that the presence of seasonal variations indicates the involvement of other factors, as the state of oxygen in the environment was constant throughout the period. The authors also highlighted decreases in all coping strategies during the midwinter period, which led to the crew members being emotionally flat, and that similar results have been shown in a 520-day study simulating space flight.
The authors suggest that the similar results between the two studies suggest that people in such situations may enter “psychological hibernation”, in which they “switch off mentally” as a way to cope with the extreme environments around them.
Wrapping up
It appears that extended periods of isolation, particularly in harsh environments, has negative psychological effects. Specifically, people in particularly harsh situations show reduced positive affect and reduced usage of coping mechanisms after being isolated for a long period of time. More research is needed to elucidate the potential benefits (it is possible that “switching off mentally” could lead to increased productivity) and harmful effects (it is possible that cognitive performance is negatively affected by this “psychological hibernation”) of such periods of isolation.
References
Sandal, G.M., van deVijver, F.J.R., Smith, N. (2018). Psychological Hibernation in Antarctica. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(1), 2235. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02235.
