Humor as a coping strategy in spaceflight

Abstract

Despite physical and mental stressors in space capsule environments, almost all astronauts cope successfully with the demands of their careers (Suedfeld, Brcic, & Legkaia, 2009; Suedfeld, Brcic, Johnson, & Gushin, 2015). This study assessed astronauts' and cosmonauts' use of humor as a strategy for coping with the stressors encountered in training and in space. The Humor Coping Scale (HCS) was devised to assess five categories of humor: Affiliative (designed to enhance interpersonal cohesiveness and liking), Enhancing (expression of a humorous outlook on life), Aggressive (tendency to express critical or sarcastic humor that may have negative impact on others), Self-defeating (excessive use of self-disparaging humor), and Problem-oriented (humor used to cope with specific stressful events). We used thematic content analysis to identify the above-mentioned five categories of humor in retrospective narratives (memoirs, debriefs, interviews, etc.) of two samples of spacefarers. Sample One consisted of an international group of 46 active astronauts and cosmonauts, while Sample Two consisted of 20 retired long-duration male cosmonauts. Results for Sample One showed that astronauts employed Coping humor more in long-duration flights than short-duration flights. Astronauts who flew as members of the national majority in a crew mentioned Aggressive humor more frequently than did national minority astronauts; cosmonauts mentioned less Affiliative humor than astronauts from NASA or other space agencies. Retired cosmonauts when describing their active space career mentioned Positive and Coping humor more than during other career phases. In addition, the use of Self-defeating humor increased significantly throughout their careers with most mentions occurring after retirement. Additional results, implications, and comparisons of both samples will be further discussed.