Investigating the Effects of Trust in Isolated, Confined, and Extreme Teams: A Mixed-Methods Inquiry

Teams are relied upon in extreme and challenging environments in which there are considerable demands and failures can have severe consequences. Despite an increased interest in extreme teams, empirical research remains limited. Moreover, whilst the literature differentiates between extreme and non-extreme teams, it rarely distinguishes between different types of extreme teams. In this thesis, I argue extreme teams can be differentiated into multi-team systems (MTS) and teams in isolated, confined environments (ICE). I draw on contextual challenges present in different types of extreme environments to examine what factors support teamwork in emergency response teams (MTS) and expedition teams (ICE). In doing so, I identify methodological and analytical approaches suitable for researching extreme teams (Chapter II and V). MTS often form quickly in the response to emergencies. This creates challenges in establishing communication channels and managing conflicting objectives across inter-agency partners who may have limited experience working with one another. To address these challenges, I explored how teams communicated and coordinated in crises and if this is influenced by team member familiarity. Data were collected from immersive simulations with commanders in the emergency services and students. Mixed methods analysis showed how team processes changed across time (Chapter III) and how familiarity (Chapter IV) alleviated some of the challenges of working in MTS. In contrast to MTS, teams in ICE co-exist for pro-longed periods in hostile and remote settings. This creates challenges in maintaining team cohesion and balancing the personalities and characteristics of isolated individuals for pro-longed periods. Here, I used a diary methodology to track changes in cohesion over time and explore if fluctuations in cohesion are predicted by day-to-day events and the personality composition of teams (Chapter V). Theoretical implications for the importance of context in shaping team behaviours and practical implications for teams operating in extreme environments are provided.

Biophilic intervention strategies that incorporate plants, light, and organic elements are increasingly recognized for supporting well-being in confined environments. This systematic review analyzes health outcomes associated with edible greens and biophilic elements across 124 studies drawn from PubMed and Scopus, following PRISMA guidelines. The evidence demonstrates that greenery in confined settings—such as hospitals, eldercare, and space habitats—reduces stress, improves mood, and accelerates recovery, consistent with Stress Reduction Theory (SRT) and Attention Restoration Theory (ART). In space analogs, plant-based modules support cognitive function and improve habitat experience by producing food and oxygen. Despite these benefits, a few challenges remain: infection control, spatial constraints, and operational limitations can hinder adoption. Nonetheless, tailored biophilic systems represent a promising path to enhance health and resilience in both terrestrial and space-based care environments. This review synthesizes findings from both terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments to evaluate the effectiveness of edible plant-based biophilic interventions. Evidence from clinical studies and long-duration missions suggests that incorporating edible vegetation into confined environments enhances psychological resilience, supports nutritional intake, and contributes to overall well-being. The presence of living plant systems has been shown to reduce stress, enhance mood, and foster a sense of connectedness to nature in contexts where natural stimuli are otherwise absent. Together, these results support the role of edible greens as practical, scalable components for designing sustainable, health-promoting environments in both Earth-based and space-based habitats. We examined the role of biophilic interventions, particularly the incorporation of edible greens, in promoting health within confined environments. Biophilic interventions incorporate natural forms, materials, edible plants, and natural light into architectural designs and indoor settings to enhance both physical and mental well-being (Body and Mind Care). Research in clinical settings and space missions has focused on the outcomes associated with human-plant interactions and the development of bio-regenerative plant modules that support sustainable living. These systems grow plants in controlled environments, enabling food production and the regeneration of essential life-support resources, such as oxygen and clean air. They aim to support crew health through food production, air purification, and psychological benefits, particularly during long-duration missions. We conducted a systematic review, searching databases including PubMed and Scopus, and selected 124 studies based on the PRISMA criteria to analyze the impact of these interventions in eldercare, hospitals, isolation-wards, and spaceflight. Incorporating natural elements into confined habitats yields notable psychological and physiological benefits. In healthcare and indoor environments, the presence of greenery consistently reduces stress, elevates mood, and improves patients’ perception of their surroundings, often contributing to faster recovery. These effects are not limited to hospitals and eldercare settings. In remote and extreme environments, such as polar research stations and space missions, plant interaction can alleviate cognitive fatigue, reduce monotony, and strengthen team cohesion. Integrating edible greens and biophilic elements into confined settings—such as hospitals, eldercare facilities, and space habitats—offers measurable benefits for psychological resilience, reduced physiological stress, and improved cognitive performance. These systems serve dual purposes: therapeutic exposure to nature and support for nutritional or regenerative goals. In hospitals and long-term care, interventions like healing gardens or nature-themed spaces have been shown to reduce anxiety, pain perception, and cortisol levels, while enhancing mood and focus (Beukeboom et.al., 2012; Detweiler et al., 2012). However, high-risk environments like ICUs and operating rooms face practical barriers, including infection control, equipment sensitivity, and space limitations. Similarly, in analog and orbital habitats such as HERA or the ISS, biophilic integration is constrained by power, volume, microbial safety, and crew workload. Despite these constraints, evidence supports the feasibility of modular, low-risk systems—including sealed plant modules, artificial daylighting, and virtual green exposure—tailored to operational demands. As confined living environments become more common across clinical and off-world contexts, biophilic strategies present an adaptable, scalable framework for enhancing well-being, with minimal disruption to safety or efficiency.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the effects of students’ satisfaction with services on quality of academic life (QAL), formed by cognitive and affective components; and to assess the mediating effect of QOL components (cognitive and affective) on students’ loyalty and recommendation.Design/methodology/approachBased on 726 respondent students from public higher education institutions (HEIs) in Portugal, this paper uses a partial least squares approach to analyze the impact of satisfaction on emotions and students’ QAL and to assess whether emotions influence recommendation and loyalty.FindingsThe results reveal that satisfaction influences both cognitive and affective components of QAL. The cognitive component has a positive and significant influence on recommendation and loyalty whilst the affective component has no significant effect.Practical implicationsThe results obtained here provide implications for future action to be taken by HEI managers, in order to increase efficiency in the allocation and management of scarce resources. Therefore, when incorporating these results in decision-making processes, attention should be paid to the importance of the influence of satisfaction on QAL’s cognitive and affective components, stressing the importance of the cognitive components associated with learning experiences that play an important role in students’ future decisions in terms of loyalty and recommendation, which, in turn, are pillars of HEI sustainability.Originality/valueThe present study contributes to the literature on HEI management by assessing the influence of satisfaction on two components of QAL separately: cognitive components and affective components. In addition, the causality relationships are analyzed, assessing the emotional nexus, in order to deepen knowledge about the role played by both affective and cognitive components in students’ loyalty and recommendation, which need to be addressed and studied by carrying out new research.

When studying attitudes toward technology education, the affective attitudinal component has primarily been the focus. This study focuses on how the affective, cognitive and behavioral attitudinal components of technology education can be incorporated using a two-step survey: the traditional PATT-questionnaire (PATT-SQSE) and the recently developed Mitcham Score questionnaire. The aim of this study is to explore the relationship among the cognitive, affective and potential behavioural components of students’ attitudes toward technology in a Swedish context, using the PATT-SQ-SE instrument including the Mitcham score open items. Results of the analyses show that relationships among the attitudinal components are observable. The results also imply that relationships among the attitudinal components are different for girls than boys. A key factor for the participating students’ attitudinal relations was interest (affective component) in technology education. An individual interest in technology education was related to both the cognitive component and behavioral intention. Another key relationship, for girls, was that the cognitive component had a strong relationship with behavioral intention, which was not the case for boys. Based on the observed relations between the cognitive, affective and behavioural components we have identified two key implications for educational practice: Girls should learn a broader conception of technology in technology education, if we want them to pursue technology-related careers to a higher degree; Students’ interest in technology should be stimulated through engaging tasks in technology education.

The purpose of this study is to verify the mediating effect of team efficacy in the process of team cohesion, team shared mental model, and team communication affecting team trust in team activities using the metaverse, Gather Town. For this purpose, team trust, team cohesion, team shared mental model, team communication, and team efficacy were tested on 31 college students and graduate students of education taking courses in educational methods and educational technology at P University. Team cohesion, team shared mental model, team communication were set as independent variables, team efficacy was set as mediating variables, and team trust was set as dependent variables. As a result of the study, first, team trust, team cohesion, team shared mental model, and team communication were all found to have a statistically significant correlation. Second, it was found that team cohesion and team shared mental model had an indirect effect on team trust through team efficacy. In other words, it was revealed that team efficacy had a mediating effect on the relationship between team cohesion and the shared team mental model. On the other hand, team communication did not appear to affect team efficacy and team trust. Accordingly, it was found that team cohesiveness, team shared mental model, and team efficacy are important variables for increasing team trust in team activities using Gather Town.

Even though it is usually inferred that team work is associated with positive findings (higher engagement in organizational matters, higher satisfaction with work, better performance results), this is not always true. In some occasions, team work results in poor performance outcomes because of social loafing or interpersonal conflicts. Therefore, it is important to know what psychological factors of the team determine its performance. We indicate that the main factors clearly associated with performance results are team trust, cohesion, stress, perceived self- and collective efficacy. Even though a lot of empirical studies have been made, there is still a lack of information about the interaction between these variables and the way they contribute to performance results. Besides, usually short-term artificially composed teams are under the scope of researchers. That’s why the results do not fully reflect the essence of long-term teams functioning in real-life situations. In respect to the problems mentioned above, we raised the aim of this research: to investigate the interaction between performance results and team trust, cohesion, stress, perceived collective and self-efficacy in military settings. A hypothetical model in which team trust influences cohesion and the collective efficacy acts as a mediating variable between cohesion and performance results was created. The hypothetical model has also stated that self- and collective efficacy are associated with performance results not directly, but through the perceived stress.In this research, 160 military men of professional service took part. Of them 94.4% (151) were males and 3.8% (6) females. The age of the participants ranged from 19 to 37, mean 24.6 years. The participants belonged to 28 teams (military sections) and were selected based on the information about their team functioning. Only the teams in which their members were constantly working together were included in the research. Aggregated results were used in the statistical analysis. For the purpose of the research, three questionnaires were developed: the Military Stress Questionnaire (Cronbach α = 0.92), the Questionnaire of the Perceived Military Collective Efficacy (Cronbach α = 0.93), the Questionnaire of the Perceived Military Self-efficacy (Cronbach α = 0.94). Two scales used in this research were developed by other authors: the Intrateam Trust Scale (DeJong and Elfring, 2010; Cronbach α = 0.88) and The Perceived Cohesion Scale (Bollen and Hoyle, 1990; Cronbach α = 0.85). Team performance results were based on the evaluations of the field training.The results indicate that almost all variables of our research are intercorrelated at a statistically significant level. Performance results positively correlate with the perceived self- and collective efficacy, team trust and team cohesion. No statistically significant correlation was found between stress and performance results. Besides, a high correlation between cohesion and team trust was revealed, which indicates the multicollinearity problem between these two variables. Cohesion and team trust were united, and a hypothetical model was developed using the path analysis. It shows that cohesion and team trust influences performance results not directly: the perceived collective efficacy acts as a mediating variable. Besides, self-efficacy influences the perceived collective efficacy, and the collective efficacy influences the stress level. Several important conclusions from the obtained results could be made. First, a high collective efficacy can diminish military stress and thus act as a protective factor against the formation of PTSD and other psychopathologies. Secondly, the perceived collective efficacy is the only variable that influences the performance results directly. In order to improve the results of the team, it is important to monitor and raise the levels of collective efficacy. Thirdly, cohesion and team trust have important implications not only for the perceived team capabilities, but also for the perceived one’s own capabilities.

Research on extreme environments has highlighted the necessity of having response teams with a culture of serving both the community and the team. Though several researchers have discussed the need for “unit solidarity” or a “communal code,” our research is one of the first to empirically examine communal solidarity—that is, the building of unity in both the community and the team by serving both, which we operationalize as team serving culture—in an extreme environment. We use social contagion and social resource theories to develop a processual model showing how team serving culture starts with department servant leadership. We theorize that department servant leadership trickles down to influence team leader servant leadership, which enhances social resources including trust in team leader, team cohesion, and trust in team, which then relate to team serving culture. Finally, we show how team serving culture influences outcomes such as team service performance and team member work engagement. We test our model using a sample of 344 officers and 104 leaders enlisted in Brazil’s Battalion of Special Operations Police. Results support our theoretical model. Implications from this study inform work on team serving culture and how it can be enhanced even in non-extreme settings.

<p>Destination image is formed by three distinctly different but hierarchically interrelated components called cognitive, affective, and conative (Gartner, 1993:193). In this context, the main purpose of this research is to confirm the relationships between the cognitive, affective, and conative components of destination image. It also aims to reveal the multidimensional nature of cognitive destination image and determine the dimensions that compose it. Data for the sample was collected from 446 tourists who visited Safranbolu, Turkey. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and hierarchical regression analysis were conducted to test the hypotheses. The results show that the cognitive destination image is a multidimensional construct. Also it is confirmed that destination image is a hierarchical structure within the cognitive, affective, and conative components. The assessment of both the cognitive and the affective components of destination image can be used as a predictor of tourists’ behavioral intentions toward destinations, such as intention to revisit, recommend, and spread positive word of mouth. Moreover, it is revealed that the affective component is influenced by the cognitive component and the affective component also mediates the relationship between the cognitive and conative components. These results provide some theoretical and managerial implications.</p>

Exploring attitudes toward ChatGPT among college students: An empirical analysis of cognitive, affective, and behavioral components using path analysis

Toward integrating cognitive components with computational models of emotion using software design patterns

A driving simulation study of a manned-unmanned vehicle gunnery team was conducted to assess potential metrics of team trust and cohesion for evaluating future human-autonomy teams. Cadet dyads worked with a veteran commander within a driving simulation to direct a weaponized robotic ground vehicle from a command and control vehicle and identify and engage targets on a gunnery range. Subjective, behavioral, performance, communication, and physiological data were collected to identify possible team trust and team cohesion metrics. Findings suggest that performance, behavior, and physiological data may provide useful windows into the trust and cohesion exhibited by crew members in human-autonomy teams.

Communal solidarity in extreme environments: The role of servant leadership and social resources in building serving culture and service performance

Perceived risk is a common component of health decision making theory. When affective components of risk are assessed as predictors of a behavior, they are usually examined separately from cognitive components. Less frequently examined are more complex interplays between affect and cognition. We hypothesized that cognitive and affective risk components would both have direct effects on colonoscopy behavior/intentions and that affective components would mediate the relationship of cognitively-based perceived risk to colonoscopy screening. In two secondary analyses, participants reported their cognitive and affective perceived risk for colorectal cancer, past colonoscopy behavior, and future screening intentions. In both studies, cognitive and affective risk components were associated with increased screening behavior/intentions and cognitive risk components were mediated through affective risk. Given the impact of early detection on colorectal cancer prevention, educational strategies highlighting both components of risk may be important to increase screening rates.

The Third-Quarter Time (TQT) phenomenon is a psychological and physical state observed in isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) environments, emerging during the third quarter of long-duration missions. Characterized by mood swings, anxiety, and interpersonal tensions, TQT remains underexplored despite consistent reports from polar research and space missions. To address this, the PAHPA ICE program, supported by ESA and IPEV, is conducting multidisciplinary research at Concordia Station using a Mixed Methods framework. By combining physiological, psychological, and qualitative data, PAHPA ICE aims to identify the factors contributing to TQT and improve adaptation strategies for extreme environments. Insights gained from Concordia are expected to enhance well-being and resilience, not only for polar missions but also for space exploration and submarine deployments.

Most researchers have studied students’ academic self-concept within native language and mathematics, indicating the multidimensional nature of academic self-concept. However, there is a shortage of studies that examined the twofold multidimensional structure of verbal self-concept within the internal/external frame of reference (I/E) model of two foreign languages. This study aims to examine affective and cognitive components of English and Russian self-concepts for defining the separation or conflation of these components within the I/E model and evaluate cognitive and affective components across gender. A total of 540 eighth-grade Azeri students participated in this study. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated self-concept structure as twofold multidimensional, distinguishing affective and cognitive components as two different constructs. Study of the I/E model of two language self-concepts showed that Russian achievement correlated with Russian cognitive self-concept and English cognitive self-concept related to English achievement. One general verbal self-concept for different languages may not adequately represent multilingual learners and can produce misleading interpretations. The relationship between the two dimensions of self-concept in two target languages was invariant. The results of this study should encourage researchers to examine subject-specific self-concepts that conceptualize cognitive and affective dimensions of the self-concept and their relationships with achievement.