Lincoln University Digital Thesis Copyright Statement The digital copy of this thesis is protected by the Copyright Act 1994 (New Zealand). This thesis may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use: you will use the copy only for the purposes of research or private study you will recognise the author's right to be identified as the author of the thesis and due acknowledgement will be made to the author where appropriate you will obtain the author's permission before publishing any material from the thesis. Person-environment fit: Needs and challenges in Antarctica A Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of PhD in Psychology at Lincoln University by Cyril Jaksic Lincoln University 2018 Abstract Thousands of individuals are deployed to Antarctica every year to support scientific research. Understanding how they cope in such an unusual location can reveal the factors and dynamic processes of human adaptation inherent in the more general category of Isolated and Confined Environments (ICEs). Drawing from an organisational psychology approach that considers the interaction between an individual’s and an environment’s characteristics, the present research applies the Person-Environment fit (P-E fit) theory to ICEs. This approach assumes that matching characteristics of an individual with relevant aspects of an environment allows one to predict overall adjustment to that environment. Focussing on the fit of two defining characteristics of those environments (isolation and confinement) with social needs and personality traits, the present research investigated a new theoretical model aimed at better understanding and predicting one’s overall adjustment to deployment, as measured by job satisfaction, job performance, sleep disturbance, cognitive impairment, and mood ratio (positive/negative). Two studies were conducted to test this model. Study 1 utilised data from wintering personnel (“winter-overs”; n = 14) at Antarctic stations operated by five different National Antarctic Programmes. Data were collected throughout each participant’s period of deployment in Antarctica. Study 2 used former winter-overs (n = 59). Deployments for this group covered a range of almost 60 years, in 16 different Antarctic stations that were operated by eight different National Antarctic Programmes. Results across both studies consistently found one’s fit with isolation to be positively related to one’s job satisfaction, cognitive performance and mood. No reliable relationship with sleep quality was found. By contrast, results failed to find any consistent relationship between one’s fit with the lack of privacy and the same outcome variables. The results suggest that it is possible to predict one’s fit with the isolation from one’s need for affiliation but not from one’s need for intimacy. It is suggested that one’s fit with the lack of privacy on station can be predicted from one’s need for intimacy but not from one’s actual need for privacy. Moderation of these relationships via privacy regulation strategies is discussed, such strategies being behaviours one would adopt in order to achieve one’s desired privacy (e.g., social withdrawing). Finally, the impact of limitations of the studies and the implications of the results for theory and for practices in other ICEs are discussed. Keywords: Person-Environment fit (P-E fit), Isolation and Confined Environment (ICE), Psychology, Antarctica, Adaptation i Acknowledgements A core group of individual people provided guidance during the course of the work for this thesis. I would like to thank my supervisor, Gary Steel, and my associate supervisors, Kevin Moore and Emma Stewart, for their advice on research and the ways of academia, and Roslyn Kerr for her support. Several organisations provided support for this research in one form or another. Without their help and cooperation, it would have been much more difficult, if not impossible, to carry out this work. I am grateful to the Fondation Hélène et Victor Barbour and Lincoln University for their funding; the Polar Research Institute of China, the Alfred Wegener Institute, Antarctica New Zealand, and the Norwegian Polar Institute for granting access to their winter-overs in the first study; and the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) Club, the British Antarctic Survey Club, the UK Polar Network, the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), and the Facebook groups ‘I’ve been to Antarctica’ and ‘Old Antarctic explorers’ for providing means of communication with their members for the second study. Finally, I would like to thank all the participants who made this research possible. ii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................ii Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... iii List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1 : Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Isolated and Confined Environments (ICEs) ..............................................................................5 1.2 Aims and objectives of the present study.................................................................................6 Chapter 2 : Literature review ................................................................................................... 7 2.1 Isolation ....................................................................................................................................7 2.1.1 Social needs .................................................................................................................. 9 2.2 Confinement .......................................................................................................................... 13 2.2.1 Social needs ................................................................................................................16 2.3 Winter-over syndrome ........................................................................................................... 16 2.3.1 Mood ..........................................................................................................................17 2.3.2 Sleep ...........................................................................................................................17 2.3.3 Cognition ....................................................................................................................18 2.3.4 Potential causes .........................................................................................................18 2.4 Symptoms over time .............................................................................................................. 19 2.5 Positive repercussions of an ICE experience .......................................................................... 20 2.6 What matters in Antarctica? .................................................................................................. 22 2.6.1 The individual .............................................................................................................23 2.6.2 Person-Environment fit ..............................................................................................24 2.6.3 Paradoxical environment ...........................................................................................27 2.7 Scarcity ................................................................................................................................... 28 2.8 Personality ............................................................................................................................. 29 2.8.1 Agreeablenes and extraversion as moderators .........................................................31 2.9 Research Objectives ............................................................................................................... 33 Chapter 3 : Study 1 ................................................................................................................. 36 3.1 Method .................................................................................................................................. 36 3.1.1 Participants ................................................................................................................36 Recruitment ........................................................................................................36 Sample ................................................................................................................37 3.1.2 Measures and procedure ...........................................................................................38 3.1.3 Pre-winter-over survey ..............................................................................................38 Demographics .....................................................................................................38 Personality